Raven's Dusk
by VesperChan
Summary: HIATUS  After a while they all turned their backs on her and left her alone. Sakura's eyes were hazed over, filled with the numb sensation.She didn't care anymore...that was untill they did that to her making her no longer human.OOC
1. Prologue

Hello people!

Yeah I know I have a lot of other stories I should work on but I needed to do this to get my muse back up. I was running low in inspiration so I decided to start this. I must say it has helped since I have a few more chapters to my other stories finally finished. Yeah sorry for the wait, I know I take a long time but at least I don't take years to update.

Also I wrote this when I was really depressed so it's a bit dark…okay it's very dark and depressing. Lots of blood, pain and all that other stuff in the beginning. I got a lot of inspiration from Elfin Lied and Hellsing. Yes, I know I'm weird, you don't need to remind me.

Now for the bad part, I don't own Naruto or this song "Wasted" by Three doors down, (that I used a few times in the Prologue at the end) in any way what so ever. (What? You think I did?) Read, enjoy and review! Flames are welcome as always. Please enjoy!

* * *

Prologue

-

Save me now  
Fallin' to pieces  
Losin' control  
Losin' achievements  
This world chooses others than me  
Forget this world  
It's worst than me

It's all here and I've got it together,  
I'm losing it all and I'm throwin' away again.  
I can't seem just to see tomorrow,  
But I can see that it's wasted me

-

A thousand dirty prison cells lined the dark lightless wall of an underground base hidden from the human eyes with advanced skill. The cold chilling atmosphere floated heavily throughout the hallways in a ghostly ethereal way.

The smell of old dried blood hung heavily in the air so much that it was chokingly sick. Not only was it in the air but it lined the cell's floors and decorated the walls with a great abundance.

Every so many yards a small light would hang illuminating the only light hung suspended in the air, frozen like an eerie ghost or phantom. Most of the lanterns were extinguished by a chilling breeze adding to the looming darkness. No one bothered to re light them or do anything about the smell or blood that littered the walls and floors.

After all these were the slaves' quarters. Were the trash of the trash dwelt, sleeping and breathing with difficulty. Most of these prisoners were young boys and girls under the age of ten, taken from their families and homes against their wills.

In one of these cells one of their prisoners dwelt, different from the rest. While most were taken against their will she was not. She couldn't be taken anywhere against her will since she _had_ no will.

She sat there in the darkness willingly without a second thought to her doomed fate. While most kicked screamed and thrashed against their torture she hardly ever breathed a word and rarely ever moved on her own. A pair of short, shredded black shorts clung tightly to her thin hips as did a ripped, cropped top.

"I'm nothing. I'm nobody." Though a shivering pale girl with limp cherry colored pink hair that fell past her shoulders.

Her negative thinking repeated it's self over and over in her aching head as her cold emotionless eyes stared blankly ahead at the floor without blinking. Her arms were held high above her limp head, held in place by thick gray chains that sucked her chakra away, or would of if she had any.

The girl's name is Sakura, and she used to be a ninja of the hidden leaf village. But not anymore. Now she was a prisoner of the (1)Yura no Nori. It was ultimately an underground breeding prison filled mostly with young children even some infants. Sakura being just barely 16 was the oldest out of all of them. She guessed this was because once the children reached a certain age they became to powerful for the breeders and captors threatening to rebel.

She didn't know what happened to the kids once they reached that age and she really didn't care.

The only reason they kept her there was because of how willingly she submitted to their experiments and tests. Again this was something she didn't care about in the least. She knew if se started to care it would turn into anger and vengeance and she didn't want to turn down that path…not like someone had a long, long time ago. She wouldn't end up living for death.

Her concerned for her body and feelings were thrown out the window. There were some things she wouldn't let them do to her but this was the only time she showed any sigh of life or willpower during her entire stay.

She coughed letting her lungs heave out a bit of excess blood that snaked down her chin and onto the floor laying with the rest of her blood, both old and new. Some of it was black and brown telling her how old with age it was. It ran along the cracks in the floor falling into different designs.

"I wonder how much more blood I can loose untill I pass out again?" She murmered in a dead tone remembering the times when she could fall into a soft slumber with no thoughts of the ever beckoning death or pain her awakining would bring.

When they beat her some of the guards would laugh and call her 'rag doll' in a taunting manner because of how limply she would roll away, just like a rag doll. Even when she sat alone in her cell, her neck rarely supported her head letting it roll to the side in a doll like way. It might have also been because of her appearance since patches of her skin were burned or heavily stitched like a rag doll's body would be.

The patches and the stitches were not the only thing about her appearance that had changed. It might have been the drugs the tested on her but her whole body had completely morphed over the short amount of time.

Her once ugly dangly legs were a bit paler, toned and smooth around the patches as were her arms. Both void of any extra unneeded fat. Her once flat chest was now very mature matching her once stiff straight hips now curved in to perfection. Her stomach was toned and neatly tucked in accented the rest of her gorgeous body, though this might be due to the lack of food and intense training instead of one of the many drugs they used on her.

Her swan like neck arched as her pale porcelain colored face remained cast downward almost as if in shame. If she could the motivation to actually stand up she would find herself measuring in at around 5' 3" maybe 5' 4" since one of the drugs killed her growth condemning her to this height. She actually liked being short compared to how tall her ex best friend Ino was.

The annoying blond girl was a towering 5' 9" and didn't hesitate to rub it into her face when she was back in hidden leaf village her home. Her height wasn't the only thing she would tease Sakura about either. Ino had beautiful long silky hair ten times the length of her own. The cerulean eyed girl would have had a field day if she saw her in her current state.

"There, that was one thing to be thankful about..."

Sakura let a drizzle of her precious crimson red blood fall over her chapped and broken lips before pooling at her knees. Her lips felt stained from all the sour tasting liquid that pooled over them. Not like she could stop it even if he wanted to.

Oh how she longed for some warm, ramen with Naruto and Kakashi and even Sai. Just once more...once more...a time with those three. But that could never be. Not anymore.

Since her detachment from Konohagakure she seemed to care about little and attend to even less. Even her dream to become the greatest female ninja of her time was left to the bitter darkness that now consumed her once sane mind. Nothing mattered to her anymore. She felt so lifeless and hallow inside. She had nothing or rather no one to live for.

She grew up working mostly at the hospital so her social life was more or less nothing aside from Naruto and Kakashi. But Naruto moved on finding Hinata more enjoyable company than herself and Kakashi mysteriously went missing one day and never returned. Some said he was dead but she shut their voices out and hotly replied that he was too strong for that, he was still alive just a little late.

Yeah like thirteen and a half months late.

Naruto would occasionally come to visit her but she could see these were pity trips to him and that he couldn't wait to get away from her. So she distanced herself from him coming up with an excuse every time he asked her if she wanted to just hang out and talk. After a while of persisting he stopped coming. Yeah it was what she wanted, but it still hurt seeing him give up on her the way he did. Without either, her life was reduced to just work and occasionally an easy low ranking missions.

Her heart hurt so much from the loneliness that it numbed her to any other physical pain they could put her through. She was beginning to doubt that she didn't even had a heart anymore. By now it must be so broken and beaten that it's not even worth saving.

She felt someone come and unlock her chains before roughly dragging her down the long corridors by her scared and stitched arms. They screamed in pain as the feeing of them ripping off from the rest of her body consumed her. Yet she didn't even grunt in pain or protest as the treatment continued. Screaming would hurt her lips and cracked throat too much.

Her dark emerald green eyes closed before opening again after a brief moment of rest. Her long dark lashes obscuring her vision as her eyelids refused to completely open resting at the halfway point. Her chest rose and fell slightly with each and every breath her weak and fragile lungs managed to beat out.

She knew where they were taking her and by now , to no surprise, she really didn't care. They were taking her to what she referred to as the 'drug' room. That was where the injected various drugs and temperaments into her body testing them on her and monitoring her reaction to all of them. Some made her hot some made her cold, some gave her the sensation of falling. Some of the made her feel as if she were on fire or being torn apart. Some made her scream in pain and cry blood red tears.

"Put her there," someone called in the sea of hazed over faces.

"Yes sir. Is there anything else?"

"Just get me the toxin and move out of the way."

A pair of strong arms lifted her onto a table and forced her back into a laying position as various cords and patches were placed over her body to monitor her reactions on a computer screen. The cold metal against her snow colored exposed flesh sent shivers up and down her spine. She could faintly feel the prick of one of their long cold needles piercing her skin as the unknown liquid was forced into her system.

Her eyes rolled down to her side to catch a glimpse of a dark murky yellow liquid. For the first minuet nothing happened as the drug cycled through her system, but alas the blissful numbness could not last forever and soon the drug began to take effect. First the nerves sparked with pain followed by a squeezing sensation that surrounded her lugs and heart. Her eyes rolled back into her skull as the plain white room around her started to spin rapidly.

A rapid beeping sounded to her left as a machine shrieked erratically. She felt so dizzy as her balance was distorted making to ceiling and walls shift and change. Soon she was seeing double of everything. Their smiling faces and their huge menacing grins spun around her taunting her, teasing her, poking fun at her and her pain.

Her body began to shiver in need of heat as it became alarmingly cold before she broke into a fit. Her body heaved up and down before twisting and turning wildly reacting to the vile drug as it flowed through her system. Her head swished back and forth as her arms and legs thrashed around her widely. Her eyes open wide, hazed over and completely white as the began to go into REM or rapid eye motion when the eye moves back and forth so fast it can not be seen.

It's pain shot through her again and again and again like lightning or fire as it tore her up on the inside a roaring rang in her ears as the feeling of a thousand hammers descending upon her skull rippled throughout her mind.

She couldn't do anything...anything but...

_'Scream_.'

She couldn't hold it in any more and screamed, adding to their smiles. She screamed widely in a shrieking pitch that shattered a few vials nearby spilling their contents out onto the floor.

The small scarred girl let the drug do this to her. If she really wanted to she could have suppressed it but she didn't. She let it take over her shattered and worthless meaningless life. The effort needed to much will power for someone like her.

A though flashed through her mind about her friends wondering if they would care about her before it was replaced by the grim reality. No, they wouldn't care, no one would care about her and that was why she didn't care about herself. Why she didn't care about the pain or he beatings or the mistreatment. No one else cared about her so why should she care about herself. Sakura whimpered at the realization hit her again. No… one… cared.

The drug began to eat away at her consciousness as she felt herself fall further and further away from reality. Before she drifted completely away she could faintly her their voices talking about how she might be ready for 'it'. She didn't know what 'it' was and at the moment it was the least of her problems. All she wanted to do was fall asleep and never wake up.

_'Sleep_.'

She heard the word (2) Karasu murmured several times but once again she didn't care. Sleep seemed too sweet a thing to ignore.

Someone picked her up roughly to make room for some other unlucky child she knew nothing of. Sakura let her eyes stare down at her long thin legs trailing behind her covered in burns and scars sewed together with thick black string. They were dragging her to a new cell in a more secure part of the secret underground compound.

'Why was that?' She wondered lazily as her brain began to pick up a bit before falling back down.

The guard roughly tossed her into a new empty cell across from another empty cell much like her own not bothering to chain her up knowing she couldn't do anything.

How long was she kept in this place? Three days, a week, a few months? Most likely more since her hair was now past her shoulders and down to her elbows in a slight wave. Before she was captured it was just barley above her shoulders straightened nicely void of the knots and tangles that now choked her dawn tinted locks. Thar was how she liked it. She knew she had been here a long, long time but the exact date was still unknown to her. It was all a blur to her.

Her brown wrinkled inward as her lips bent into a sad frown as a though hit her. She was here so long and still no one has come for her. Didn't anyone miss he? Replaying the though in her mind her lips cracked upward briefly as a soft chuckled echoed from her lips causing a small stream of blood to slither down her chin and neck.

No one probably even noticed her insignificance disappearance let alone care. She brought this hell upon herself they had nothing to do with her sorrow. They had nothing to do with her anymore, period.

Her legs split away at the knees as she sat limply on the cold gray floor with her head bent forward, allowing her tangled dirty pink hair to fall around her face. Her eyes were shadowed darkly as they stared down at her pale scarred hands covered in blood that sat lifelessly on her lap.

"What do I care? This life has wasted me." She hoarsely laughed, her sore throat cracking from lack of use and water as her lips curled into a sick smile that bled even more.

She laughed almost enjoying the physical pain that numbed her to the stronger mental pain. The crimson red liquid that once flowed freely through her veins dripped down from her chin onto the stone floor into a small puddle that started darkly back at her, gleaming like the mirror of a beautiful ruby.

"This life has wasted me."

**Falling down  
Breaking' to bleed this blazing' machine  
I can't repeat this killing' my soul **

**someone can feed me  
All of this mess has wasted me**

**It's all here and I've got it together,  
I'm falling apart and I'm throwing away again.  
I can't seem just to see tomorrow,  
But I can see that it's wasted me**

**But I can see that it's wasted me…**

* * *

Just in case you were wondering here at the translations for you. 

(1) Yura no Nori means beginning of the government…I think. A perfect name for people wanting to take over the world with a bunch of slave children.

(2) Karasu means- Raven

First part is short I know. It's not really the first chapter just the prolouge. The rest of the chapters will be much longer so don't worry about that. I just wanted to set the scene and let you get the feel of where Sakura is. Yeah really OOC I know. But she get's better later on okay.

Thank you for reading this so far and don't forget to please review.

Flames are welcome to roast my marshmallows and melt my chocolate.

Ja ne


	2. This Heart That's Healing

Disclaimer:/I _want_ to own Naruto and all it's cool ninja goodness. Nor do I own Flyleaf and all it's coolness...

Please please review. Even if it's a flame,please review.

* * *

**Chapter One **

**Healing **

-

-

-

_My hands are searching for you _

_My arms are outstretched towards you _

_I feel you on my fingertips _

_My tongue dances behind my lips for you _

_This fire rising through my being_

_Burning I'm not used to seeing you _

_I'm alive, I'm alive _

_I can feel you all around me _

_Thickening the air I'm breathing _

_Holding on to what I'm feeling _

Savoring this heart that's healing

-

-

-

Sakura opened her eyes half way to see the feet of a guard outside her cell pass by on his daily rounds. She lifted her head up expecting him to stop at her cell and drag her out but they merely passed by. Her head lay limply against the blood stained floor as the rest of her body followed in an extended position behind her. She limply turned her head back to the entrance of her cell and watched the floor as shadows passed back and forth.

"Shadows?" She weakly muttered as her natural feminine curiosity took hold of her heart.

She blinked in surprise when she was able to successfully lift her small boy up off the floor without any pain what so ever aside from the soreness of sleeping on a cold stone floor for however long she was asleep.

"How long was I out for?" she wondered aloud as she stared down at her extended arms that were void of all their cuts and burn marks that were there when she fell asleep.

Now the only thing left to scar her arms were her stitched patches that brought about her 'rag doll' nickname. Her legs and torso were no different, completely void of scarring wounds and burns aside from her patches. Even some of her beloved patches were gone. The ones around her ankles if she was correct.

Sakura bent down to examine this and was surprised when her once elbow length fell down to her hips. She gasped lightly snapping back up. With shivering fingers she lifted up a stray lock of her dirtied bubblegum pink hair and stared at it. It grew so much since the last time she checked. How long exactly had she been asleep? It must have been that drug they gave her, there was no way she could have slept that long, right?

Sakura frowned and clutched her head in frustration. It had to be a drug, for her hair to grow that long would take a month at the least!

"Oh you're awake. It's about time, the masters have been waiting forever for you to snap out of it." One of the guards outside her cell scoffed in pure disgust for a slave child such as her.

"L…long enough? How long was I out of it?" She asked hesitantly not really ready for an answer.

"A few weeks, nine or eight at the least. It might even be a few months, I don't know the details." He sneered before walking off, most likely to report to his superiors about her waking up.

"A few…months? Was I really out that long?" Sakura asked herself in disbelief running a hand through her dirtied limp dawn tinted hair. "Was it hat drug that caused it?"

Removing her hand from her messy tangles she stared down at the pale body part. What really hit her was why she was so healthy and clean for being out for so long. She thought for sure that they would torture her in her sleep and inject other various drugs in to her system as she continued to slumber.

It was so unlike them to leave her alone the way they did. This irritated her further since that meant they planned some sort of extreme torture that required her to heal before it could be carried out.

She breathed in deeply and let her small frail body fall against the wall in a huff. Gravity closed upon her as she slid down the cold stone landing in a slump with her legs on either side of her. It's not like she cared what happened to her, she had no reason to live for after all.

A vision of Naruto and Kakashi flashed through her mind before they faded to the darkness. Not even her closest friends could save her from what she was. Her two closest friends were now reduced to merely memories, shadows of the distant past.

Kakashi was gone, plain and simple.

She remembered distantly well the day when the dreaded news arrived. She was working in the hospital at that time working on repairing a chunin's ripped tendon when a fellow nurse ran into the room with a frantic expression asking for her. When Sakura asked what was wrong all she said was that the Hokage requested her presence.

-

_"Hokage sama, you requested my presence?" Sakura asked stepping into the familiar large office that donned many windows and bowed to her sensei in respect._

_Tsunade looked down for a moment inhaling deeply before raising her eyes to meet Sakura's. "Sakura chan, you are aware that you sensei was placed on a squad of several other Jonin not too long ago for a S rank mission?" The tall blond asked sternly. _

_Sakura winced inwardly as the sensation of a large hand taking hold of her heart and squeezing the life out of it gripped her mercilessly. "Hai Tsunade sensei." She answered calmly despite the grappling pain in her chest. _

_"The mission was a failure and the entire squad was wiped out. No one survived." Tsunade replied rather bluntly without mercy._

_Sakura sucked in sharply as her emerald green orbs widened in shock. No, it couldn't be. He couldn't be… "Then Kakashi sensei is…" She gasped leaving the rest of her sentence unfinished._

_She couldn't finish it. That word was just too cruel and malicious._

_"Yes Kakashi sensei is dead." Tsunade finished bowing her head in respect for the dead. "I know both you and Naruto were really close to him so I though you two should be the first to know. I think it is best if you didn't go back to work today. The shock must be horrible so I'll let you rest."_

_Sakura limply let her head sway back in forth in a nod before lifelessly stumbling out of her teacher's office. Her once dazzling bright green eyes loosing their life, turning into two lifeless dark pools of green_.

-

Sakura remembered running home and crying for hours with a blanket and a box of tissues as her only companions for the next twenty four hours.

That was almost Two years ago, if she estimated her time correctly. Three whole long years since his death. She still refused to believe it but sooner or later she would have to face the facts. He was gone and he wasn't coming back.

Then there was Naruto, at least she still had him. In life that was true, but he was even father away than Kakashi was in a sense. At least with Kakashi they were always close, with Naruto the two seemed to drift apart.

She distinctly remembered her sensei's funeral so long ago. She stood out to the side alone clutching a single white rose in her trembling hands that refused to still for even a moment. He stood out in the middle surrounded by close friends, Hinta hugging tightly to his arm.

She notice even before then that they were not as close as they used to be but it was so slightly she could hardly tell. After Kakashi's death their relationship seemed to fall apart. He could see the longing for solitude in her eyes and left her alone completely forgetting her so it seemed. He would occasionally stop by the hospital where she worked and offered to treat her out to some lunch but she would always politely refuse, telling his she had too much work for a break.

That's what she said but somewhere deep in her heart there was nothing she would love more. She knew that this loneliness was what she asked for but it wasn't what she really wanted and she knew it. Maybe she just didn't want to bother Naruto with her troubles or waste his time with her petty problems. Maybe she care too much to be a burden to anyone other than herself. She could spend a multitude of days coming up with these excuses but there was one that stood out apart from the others.

Another vision of Hinata clinging to Naruto's arm flashed through her memory for a brief moment before fading into the nothingness of her mind. More memories of the times when they began to fall apart flickered behind her eyes as the distant memories resurfaced.

-

"_Hey Naruto, do you want to come and train with me for a while?" Sakura happily chirped as she skipped to her best friend's side with a dazzling pearl white smile._

_"Hey Sakura chan. Training would be great I really need it since I've been slacking off lately." Naruto chuckled with a bright dazzling smile of his own. His cerulean blue eyes bent upward in a fox like slant before his smile faded into a frown._

_"What's wrong Naruto? Can't you train today?" She asked concerned. _

_"I'm sorry Sakura chan but I promised Hinata that I would help her out with something today. Maybe tomorrow, is that okay?" Sakura smiled sadly but nodded holding back her disappointment as her best friend ran off farther and farther from her small fragile looking frame. _

_-_

_"Hey Naruto want to go out to ramen?"_

_"I'm sorry Sakura chan but Hinata and her team are having a special training session and she wanted me to be there. How about next time?" _

_-_

_"Naruto, I was wondering if you would like to walk with me to the hospital."_

_"Man Sakura chan I'm really sorry but I have this thing with Hinata today. Next time I promise."_

_-_

_"Naruto do you want to take a stroll with me through the Sakura fields for a while."_

_"Please forgive me Sakura chan but I promised Hinata that I would help her with something she had trouble with. I swear next time we can do that." _

_-_

It was like that all the time. At first it was only a few times but then those times grew more and more frequent until it was almost everyday he was gone. Then after the funeral it seemed she never saw him. He was a stranger to her. Someone who preferred the famous Hyuga heiress' company to her own.

It was pretty painful at first but time numbed her to the sorrow of her solitude.

So, first Kakashi left her for the darkness of death where she could not fallow and then she lost Naruto to Hinata and his other friends. Without those two she failed to find a decent reason for living. Heck, a reason for living at all.

She reached up and brushed a few of her fingers over her soft sensitive skin that was now the color of snow. The feeling of her flesh underneath her fingertips seemed to sooth her from her troubling memories she rather not dwell upon.

No, she would no longer let her mind wander to those memories of her time in that traitorous village that she once belonged to. It was true if she still had her headband there would be a slash through it proudly displayed around her neck. She really did hate that village.

"Alright rag doll get up and eat this." A rough voice barked from outside her cell while shoving a pate of food into her small square prison.

Sakura blinked once maintaining a cool expression despite the confusion running through her head. On the plate were five strips of dried meat, a large slice of bread that surprisingly was not stale, and a apple. What were that doing giving her food that was good for her? No what were they doing giving her food that was good tasting. She thought that they wanted to inflict the maximum amount of punishment of her and he fellow cell mates. The last time she had a decent meal was long before she came to such a retched place.

Her stomach lurched and growled yearning for the food before her.

"I could be poisoned, or drugged." She mused looking over the food. Her stomach gave another lurch and growled again this time more fiercely. "Well, today is as good a day to die as ever I suppose." She sighed picking up the bread and hastily shoving it into her mouth followed by the meat strips and apple.

She moaned in delight as the tasty substances slid down her throat, filling the empty pit that resided in her stomach. She could latterly feel the food hit the bottom it was so hollow. The sweet juices of her apple trailed down the sides of her chi for a moment before they were hastily licked up.

Her joy was short lived as a flood of light hit her in the eyes forcing her to look away when her cell's door was opened from the outside. It must have been a bit brighter out there than she thought it was. Since the only light she could see by was the light that slipped through the window and slots on the iron door, the opening of this door released a great deal of light to her delicate eyes.

Her wide pupils shrank in size tremendously almost reducing themselves to a sliver of black in a pool of green in hopes to block out as much light as possible. She bared her teeth and hiss like the twisted creature of the darkness that she was growing into from all their torture.

"Careful pal, the rag doll has it's strength back now." One of the two shadows she presumed to be guards whispered to a second shadow with a long thin rope like object in his hands.

"You don't think I know that? Why else would they send two of us down here to fetch it." The second shadow whispered back to the first before taking a few steppes forward.

Sakura blinked and kept her eyes mostly shut as the shadowy form descended upon her thin pail body. She felt him slip something cold and hard around her neck but didn't protest. She knew it was a metal collar with an anti chakra suppressing seal that attached to a long chain leash they would use to drag her around with whenever she showed signs of irritation. Not that they needed it since she wouldn't try anything when they transported her. She still didn't care about things like that.

The small abused child winced subconsciously as the small spikes and spurs on the inside of the collar dug into her shivering flesh. Pulling herself to her feet she obeyed the tugs and yanks from the leas like a wounded little puppy as she was escorted by to larger, and most likely stronger, guards as if she was a wild animal that could turn on them in any second.

As if.

As they traveled down corridors and passages Sakura's sensitive eyes readjusted the surprisingly bright lights that surrounded her. She must be in a different part of the base, she never remembered the lights being this bright. Now that she thought about it these corridors and tunnels did seem a bit different than the ones she was used to. Passing by another tunnel they turned down a wide corridor that felt a bit more alive than the others.

Sweeping her eyes to the side she could see why.

To her left the whole wall. from top to bottom, was lined with tall iron bars making a cage out of the space behind it. Sakura's heat tightened a bit at what she saw inside the cage.

The sound of sniffling and crying filled her ears and her eyes darted from the form of one child to the next. The cage was filled with children.

She knew that the Yura no Nori captured children and experimented on them in order to turn them into their lifeless power soldiers that would help them take over the world, but hearing about it and seeing it were two different things. Hearing about how they cruelly butchered and tortured the most innocent of innocent and seeing the pain in their wide frightened eyes were two entirely different things that couldn't be farther apart. When she heard of these children her hear beat silently as if it were a cold stone, uncaring for their suffering.

But looking at these kids she had to ask herself how could she not let her heart go out to these young ones? There were little girls dressed in nothing but rags huddled up in corners tighter trying to conserve their body heat as their male companions sat in front of them blocking any threat that might walk in the door and seek to harm them. Most of them were five and four years of age. The oldest one in the group couldn't have been no older than seven or six, the age she was when she and Ino were picking flowers for ninja class and playing ball with her friends.

That's what they should be doing.

Not rotting in some prison where they are beaten and killed each an every day while serving as guinea pigs and lab rats.

She could see it on the floors and staining the walls, their blood. Crimson like hate it scarred the stone with it's devilish evil gleam that shone full of malice. Their blood, the blood of children, The blood of the hopeless ones, the blood of the innocent. The blood that should never be spilled in such quantities for one so young an age.

One of the little girls that sat hugging what appeared to be her brother, looked up and held her gaze, fixed in her scarlet red orbs dotted with black. Her short raven black hair falling wildly around her face in a filthy mess. Sakura could see lines cutting through the dirt on her cheeks from tears recreantly shed. She was shivering violently and the look in her eyes couldn't have been more desperate.

Her brother who was holding on to her also looked up at her with pleading eyes that begged for release. Only his were a dark onyx of the blackest of color with his limp straight hair falling down his back tied with a simple piece of string. There were no streak marks on his face indicating tears but she could see in his eyes that he was fighting with all his might to hold the droplets back, maybe in an attempt to look brave in front of his sister.

Their eyes screamed as clearly as any shot or cry could have communicated what they wanted. The wanted release, they wanted escape, relief, freedom, deliverance from this nightmare that they couldn't seem to wake up from. The wanted out and they wanted it badly.

Sakura's heart tightened up and almost stopped beating as their eyes bore deep into her soul. A deep conviction grasped at her heart as well. How selfish could she be? Here she was rolling around as lifeless as a rag doll not caring in the slightest what went on in the world around her while these poor children died and starved wanting noting else than a release. It really made her open her eyes up to how selfish she really was being as she wallowed in self pity and misery.

Her eyes were jerked from theirs as the collar around her neck was tugged forward, pulling the spikes and prongs into her flesh. Was it just her or did she feel the pain more than what she once did. Her eyes were no longer locked with theirs but still, she couldn't seem to get the vision of those poor little children out of her head. Their shivering bodies, their gleaming red blood, and their pleading dead eyes haunted her mind without mercy.

"Come on stop dragging your feet rag doll. We don't have all day to wait for you to come to a decent pace." The guard at the other end of the chin growled giving her another yank.

Sakura growled at the pain as it burned at her throat but didn't voice her complaints. Her forest green eyes narrowed and hardened staring into the back of her captor's head with a new found determination and fire that danced widely. She would no longer submit to them willingly they way she had before. She would no longer roll over like the rag doll she once was. No, if she was going to go down than she was going to go down fighting and causing as much damage as she could. She would be their hope.

Her scarred un clad feet stopped before a large iron door with a large lock of the heaviest metals positioned squarely in the middle. Sakura could see the many metal gears and bolts through the hole in the middle groan and turn, releasing the slots that held the door in place. A thing black line that was invisible a few seconds before grew darker and larger as the lock was shifted into two pieces allowing the heavy iron door to open. She was slightly amazed at how thick the doors were once completely open. Whoever designed these arraignments must have been expecting an attack or raid of some kind.

"Dang. This might just be a bit harder than I though it would be." She regretfully thought as another painful jerk from her chain brought her out of her musings.

"Come on rag doll at least try to act like your alive you little piece of trash." Barked the guard at the end of her leash as he led her on deeper into the room beyond the large iron door.

Something stirred in her heart when she heard those hatful words directed at her in such a way. How dare he, she would make him eat those word soon. She wasn't a rag doll anymore, she didn't roll over and watch the word move on without her, treating her like trash. No, she cared now and she wasn't about to let they have their way with her or those children.

She growled darkly narrowing her eyes into slits but did nothing else to protest as they led her into the room beyond the door. The room she was in must have been three or four stories high entirely painted in a black/gold paint that seemed to change color when light was reflected off it. In the middle was s a large circular object supported by five poles on the outside in the form of a star. A long twisting stairway led up to the circlet where the group of three were heading.

When they were closer to the silvery round object she snarled in protest seeing four metal clasps for her legs and arms at the edge of the circlet. Her captors heard her growl but did nothing to restrain her, they just kept moving forward, closer and closer to the object. Sakura was finding a very confusing feeling taking root in her heart as she was led closer and closer. She had gone through numerous tortures and beatings before barely batting an eye. Why was she acting up so much now?

"Come on rag doll in you go." The second guard said as the reached the landing were they would place her in the circlet.

Sakura shuddered as the two men took hold of her and lifted her protesting body into the middle of the cold silver object. Sa if magnetized the clasps lashed out and clamped down on her wrists and ankles, concealing her hands and feet in it's cold metal. Sakura hissed again in protest as they lifted the chain of her leash and attached it to a hidden hook at the top of the circle, casing the spikes and prongs to bit into her neck.

"Ha, 'ya comfy rag doll? What, no? Aw isn't that just a shame 'aint it. I wish I could help but I'm feeling a little tired so you'll have to just deal with it 'eh." One of the guards mocked as the second did nothing but laugh heartily.

"Shut up you two," someone from down the stairs called accenting the black/gold steppes. "I really don't know why you mock her, you should at least make her last moment worth while." A tall man in a lab coat and glasses stepped up onto the landing.

"Aw, she'll make it. If the master says she will, then she will. Besides what's wrong with a few stray words 'nah? Besides she can't be to resistant or else she'll extinguish it."

The man in the lab coat frowned but stepped past the two guards and stared up at Sakura intently. "Her nick name 'rag doll' dose not support my brother's theory and only adds to my concern. The Karasu could very well overpower her and if that happens she will shut down all her internal organs, killing her in a most painful way. And if that happens we will loose the raven and our chance for the ultimate weapon."

Sakura raised her drooping head to stare at the man before her that talked about her like she was a table of piece of furniture. The man must have noticed her hard stare or maybe her sneer because a sickly evil smile crept across his own lips. Sakura inwardly shuddered at the horrendous sight before her.

"Hello darling. I bet you have a lot of question about what is going on around here and what you are about to endure. I'm sorry but I can't tell you too much about what is going on but I can spar a few word on your behalf. Would you like that child?"

Sakura remained silent but pulled a bit at the clasps that held her hands and feet locked in place. Never once breaking the icy cold glare she had fixed on the stranger before her.

"Can't you speak darling, I bet you have a wonderful voice… for now at least. Why don't you use it while you still have the chance, you may not get it again."

He was met with only silence once again.

"Ah, sorry sir but the rag doll doesn't speak. It's a terrible battle to even get her to scream or cry out in pain even after the most horrible beatings. The only way you'll get anywhere with anyone here is by brut force." A guard behind the man spoke up moving forward with a raised hand as if to strike her.

Sakura hissed and moved back as far as her binds would allow her and drew her body as close as possible, waiting for the hard strike, but it never came. Cracking a single eye open she saw the man in the lab coat holding the guard's arm in a death grip. Her brow furrowed in confusion at this. Why would he spare her one measly beating?"

"You fool!" He hissed whirling around to face the guard. "Did you not know that the host of the Karasu must be in he best health possible or else it will reject the body?!"

"I….I am sorry sir, please forgive me. I forgot momentarily." The guard replied hastily falling to his knees and bowing down as lowly as possible at the man's feet.

"Imbecile, why did you think we took the time to care for her so? This isn't just another one of my brother's day to day projects. This is earth shattering. If this succeeds we will finally have the ability to overpower each and every nation that stands in our way. We can not afford for anything to go wrong here again. Have I made myself absolutely clear on this subject?"

"Yes sir, you have made yourself perfectly clear. It will not happen again." He whimpered.

"Yes I will make sure to that. Now both of you go, there can be no one else in the room when the transfer is in process. I will join you both shortly after I finish my matters here with the girl." At this command both soldiers bowed lowly and quickly hurried down the stairs.

"Imbeciles."

Sakura growled softly and continued to wriggle within her most uncomfortable bindings. She could already feel their cold metal sides rubbing away at her flesh. This did not go unnoticed my the tall mad before her.

"Don't waste your energy struggling, without chakra you'll never be able to break free. And even if you could you would still be locked within this room and recaptured within minuets."

Sakura ceased her fidgeting but kept her dark forest green eyes narrowed in anger. Finally she spoke, "What do you plan on doing with me?"

"Ah it speaks, it's so good to hear that voice of yours. For a moment there I doubted you had one. As to answer your question…" Here he paused and closed his eyes, resting a clamped hand underneath his chin. "To sum it up in a few word we will be using your body as a vessel for a winged monster that will grant us unimaginable powers. The Karasu, or Raven known by some."

"So your going to kill me?"

"Not entirely, you will be dead in a sense, but your body will be alive and well if all goes according to plan. And speaking of plans it is time for this operation to commence. Chow darling." An with a wave his entire figure was enveloped in a white cloud that transported him out of the black/gold room.

Confusion once again took hold of the petal haired girl but that was so replaced by fear as the stairway before her shifted before sinking into the ground, now invisible to the human eye. The walls around her started to glow as a low humming sound rang I her ears. Sakura whipped her head from side to side wildly searching for something that could help her but she found nothing. The humming was getting louder and soon the silver circlet that held her began to glow. Sakura pulled madly t the clasps on her hands but to no avail, true to the man's word they held firm.

She hissed in pain as the metal bindings around her feet and hands began to heat up sanding little shivers of electricity through her body. Soon they too began to glow and hum. Her limbs pulled and attempted to retract now more franticly as the small sting began to escalate into a seething pain. Bolts and bolts of electricity flashed through her body now. The feeling was unbearable, it felt as if her whole insides were being ripped apart and pushed aside to make room for something else.

"No, I won't be pushed out, I won't give into this pain. I am stronger than this." She hissed through clenched teeth as she willed her body mind and soul to fight back and resist this intruding feeling. "I will not loose!" She screamed as another flood of intense electricity flooded into her body through her clasps.

Her crimson red lips parted and her forest green eyes widened before glazing over with a sheet of white as her ear splitting scream pierced the room's atmosphere. She could feel it on her outer body as well, that sticky wet feeling running down her head, face and body. The heat must have been too much for her body as it some of it's skin split and parted letting the scarlet red liquid cascade over her pail form.

Something was pushing it's self in to her mind and it wasn't being gentle about it either. It felt as if her very skull was being ripped apart, split right down the middle like a doorway for someone or something. There, it was pushing it's self further and further into her mind pushing aside her one conscious to make room for it's own, planning on taking over her body. Something dark and silky...

She always hated the idea of body switching. God gave her this body and it was hers and hers alone, no one else had a right to it.

Her hair whipped around her in a deadly frenzy as she continued to scream even after a stream of blood decided to trickle down her chin."I will not give in to you. I will not…I… WILL… NOT!"

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My hands float up above me

And you whisper you love me

And I begin to fade

Into our secret place

The music makes me sway

The angels singing say we are alone with you

I am alone and they are too with you

I'm alive, I'm alive

I can feel you all around me

Thickening the air I'm breathing

Holding on to what I'm feeling

Savoring this heart that's healing

And so I cry

The light is white

And I see you

I'm alive, I'm alive, I'm alive

I can feel you all around me

Thickening the air I'm breathing

Holding on to what I'm feeling

Savoring this heart that's healing

Take my hand I give it to you

Now you own me

All I am

You said you would never leave me

I believe you I believe

I can feel you all around me

Thickening the air I'm breathing

Holding on to what I'm feeling

_Savoring this heart that's healed..._

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**AN:/** Please Review! It makes the updates faster.Ta da... man I'm mad about this new updateing thing...once again it would not let me do it the fast way. Took me **forever and a day**! It wasn't enough for them to keep me for two hours with Like Moths to the Light was it? 

-vents on pile of BLUE plushies-

But anyway this chapter is the first, and as you can see, much longer. I like long chapters. I just don't like how long it takes to write one. Takes forever and then another foreverto edit now that the updateing thing changed. Did I say how much I hate it? Well I do...a lot. But here is your chapter. Hope you liked it.

I hope you all liked this chapter and it's longness. I want to start making them longer, so tell me if you like them short or long. Oh yeah and Review! Review, flame make a face...just review.

Ja ne


	3. Birth by Broken Wings

Disclaimer:/ I do not own Naruto or the song Broken Wings (the ending song to Trinity Blood.)

Please review!

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_Chapter Two_

_Birth by Broken wings_

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I know this will not remain forever

However it's beautiful

Your eyes, hands and your warm smile

They're my treasure

It's hard to forget

I wish there was a solution

Don't spend your time in confusion

I'll turn back now and spread …

My broken wings

Still strong enough to cross the ocean with

My broken wings

How far should I go drifting in the wind

Higher and higher in the light

My broken wings

Still strong enough to cross the ocean with

My broken wings

How far should I go drifting in the wind

Across the sky, just keep on flying

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Her cry echoed and escalated around her, the circlet that imprisoned her grew hotter and brighter, sending even more pain and electivity through her body. Her muscles tightened and pulled, as ever fiber of her being resisted this intruding power that threatened to take over her body.

"I will not give into this I will not give in, you can't have me!" she screamed, as her hair continued to whip around her in a wild wind.

She parted her lips for another scream, but was silenced when the glowing light that surrounded the circlet dulled before transferring to her body, its intently blistering heat crawling over her body as well. Her arms and legs began to glow white as the glow traveled up her limbs and over her torso and chest, finally enveloping her head. Her whole body was a single body of blinding white light as a loud hissing and groaning sound sounded from the circular prison that held her.

_It hurts_

The pain from before was nothing compared to this seething torture. In the beginning, she felt it around her now the pain was inside her. She could smell the power from this force that attempted to take her over, reeling at the horrible stench. It felt just like a demon's chakra or aura, dark and powerful sky rocketing off the scale of human standards.

_I can feel it_

This…thing that was trying to take her over was pure, raw, power.

_This is pain_

Sakura's heart and throat burned intently, as if someone had placed them in the heart of a great fire. She felt them being torn apart and destroyed within her body. This must be the sensation that man talked about when the raven would shut down all her internal organs and kill her, most likely as a means of escape from an unwilling host.

"Oh no you don't, you wanted in and you're gonna abide by my rules," she hissed as she bit deeper into her poorly abused lower lip.

Willing her body to seal off the power that was already unstably coursing through her veins, she surrounded the power trapping it within her body. They wanted an ultimate weapon they would have one, but not for themselves, this weapon was pointed in their direction.

_I am no longer numb_

Her head reeled back taking in a sharp breath as this power complied to her commands. The burning sensation throughout her body seemed to dull as a new kind of pain took her over. She felt her flesh pull and rip shifting and changing to fit the energy within her. The pain ripped through her skull as she felt her hair grow rapidly in great lengths. And were that feather brushing across her ears?

_I can feel it again_

Her eyes darted back and forth going into REM as the color of the iris started to change. Her hand clenched within the clasps as they too underwent an unseen change.

_The pain_

Her body lurched forward as a tearing sensation ripped through her back where her shoulder blades were located. She could feel her skin ripping and tearing as something from inside her body pushed outward. First she felt it then she hear it, two slits in her back ripping open, tossing aside the excess flesh. She screamed out again, as blood leapt from her dark red, bleeding lips. It slithered through her body, attaching it's self to the bone of her shoulder blades. It was coming out now, the power was manifesting it's self in to these two black ruffled appendages that protruded from her back. Two large feathered wings of midnight black stretched out of her bleeding back as a dark glowing energy surrounded Sakura's body.

_It's back again_

Feeling the rush of chakra and power course through her at her will, Sakura smiled sickly as she clenched her fists and drew her legs as close together as possible, the clasps started to buckle and crack. Growling darkly, she pulled harder as the cracks crawled faster and longer across the smooth metal. Soon the cracks hissed as the metal separated, blasting across the room. The circlet around her groaned and snapped into pieces at Sakura's command.

_But it won't win_

A loud boom sounded in her ears as the pieces fell to the floor. Flapping her large black wings, a few stray feathers fell from her black feathered appendages, floating ever so gently to the floor. Blood ripped from her ankles, as it ran down the back of her legs and the middle of her back.

_I'm still stronger_

Her hazel, almond shaped eyes took in the scene around her as her black and pink striped hair flapped behind her before settling at her ankles. The winged girl calmly stared down at her hands that were now more thin with long claw like nails dotting the ends.

"Nail polish is going to get expensive," Sakura murmured, half heartily as she let her hands fall to her sides.

Her half lidded eyes settled at the gold/black walls before whipping over to the door. Her sensitive ears twitched at the sound of the large metal lock groan as he people on the other side of the door began to open the two large steel gates.

"Come and get me!" she hissed, flapping her wings once more and lifting her clawed hand up to her narrowed hazel colored eyes.

A sick satanic looking grin played across her burgundy lips as the though of their spilled blood entered her mind. A sliver of light fell over her floating frame as the heavy iron doors were pushed apart. Soon a squad of highly armored soldiers flooded into the generously proportioned room of gold and black.

"Easy men that thing is dangerous. We need to take it down before it's chakra builds up too much!" One of the higher ranking soldiers barked as several cannon like barrels were set up aimed for her.

"Aim…easy there…fire!"

Sakura's senses kicked in as she angled her wings upward flying out of the way of several rounds of kunai with amazing speed. Her eyes widened as she spotted a few explosion tags attached to entire round from one of the larger cannons. With a curse upon her lip, she flipped and drew her wings close to her body going into a dive bomb to avoid the explosions. Pulling her wings out at the last moment before hitting the ground she flew along the ground, dodging kunai and shuriken aimed to kill her.

_I'm not weak anymore _

Her eyes narrowed till only slits could be detected as she approached the squad of soldiers. Pulling back her arm she slashed at the group with her claws, removing heads from necks and hearts from chests. Blood fell around her as she slashed out at their bodies again and again ending life after life. Eyes closed in eternal sleep as another group of soldiers fell to her blood lust.

_If they could see me now_

As soon as the entire squad was dead she darted out of the accursed black/gold room and headed down the hallways only to meet with several more squads that waited for her.

_I'm no longer weak_

She was too late to dodge as a group of shuriken were thrown at her and as if from instinct pulled up her wings around her body to stop the spiked stars from burying deep into her flesh. Surprisingly she heard a dull cling as the fell from her wings as if her black feathered limbs were made of iron. Deciding to think about it later she pulled her wings away from her body and flapped them, propelling her body forward.

_Naruto_

Her stained crimson claws gug into the flesh of another two dozen men, ending their lives in an instance without the slightest hesitation. Her nose twitched as she closed her eyes concentrating on seeking out the chakra signatures around her and hunting them down. There was one she was intensely determined to extinguish.

_Sasuke_

Picking it up along with a group of others she beat her wings and flew down the corridors killing each and every guard that was unfortunate enough to fall in her way. She was going to kill them all.

..._Kakashi_...

All of them.

"Hurry up and open the door!" the man in a long white lab coat hissed to his brother as the man dressed in an identical white lab cloak fiddled with the lock the held a pair of large wooden doors sealed.

Two squads of body guards stood in a half circle around them keeping watch. The gleaming green blue marble floor shone underneath their feet setting of the dark burgundy red curtains and ornate candleholders that surrounded them. Where they were, was after all, the leader's privet quarters.

"I'm trying," the man's brother replied trying to keep his voice as steady as possible as he fiddled with the many locks on the door, trying to unlock them all.

"Well try faster, Ivan. She's loose and hunting us down no doubt. I told you this was too risky you idiot, but did you listen to me? No, and now look at where we are. We have the most powerful weapon on this planet tracking us down wanting to kill us no less," he hissed as his brother continued to fumble with his many keys and locks that were set before him.

"Would you shut up! I'm trying as fast as I can. Don't you think I know she's after us, of course I do. I know more about the Karasu than anyone else on this planet and so I know how lustful for our blood she will be. And of course you had to go on and taunt her giving her our scent,"

"Just shut up and unlock the damn d-"

The man's words died on his lips as a huge chunk of the wall behind the exploded sending chunks of plaster and debris everywhere.

A large dark cloud arose from the dust reveling only the silhouette of a winged monster with a fist raised as if just finishing punch. Her body heaved, rising and falling with each breath, her fist trembled a bit. Through the thick cloud a pair of blazing hazel colored slited eyes glared death at the two white clad brothers that stood frozen on the doorstep of their escape. The cloud of dust settled, dissipateing into the air, revealing her angry bleeding frame.

_Look at me now_

The blood lust in her eyes could not be mistaken.

The blood lust for their blood.

"You…two…" she breathed as her voice trembled a bit from rage and lust for their blood. "You…two…"

The man known as Ivan and his brother both paled greatly in fear for their life. They knew the small squad of body guards were no match for the winged girl before them but weren't about to tell them that. They would at least buy them, possibly, enough time to escape.

"Don't just stand there, stop her!" the unnamed brother cried pointing at her still panting frame that stood unmoving.

His command sent half of the squad forward only to be brutally butcher dint a quick moment by her bloodied claws of steel.

"You…two…will…pay…with your _LIVES_!" Sakura breathed stepping over a disembodied head that lay frozen in a horror stricken expression for all eternity.

Her bare feet steeping through the small river of blood that surrounded her as she drew closer to the two men in lab coats.

"Ivan do something, I'll handle the locks. You said so yourself that you knew her better than any other human on the planet," the first brother cried grabbing the keys out of his brother's hands and pushing him forward.

Ivan stumbled forward a few steeps before freezing up in fear. Sakura took a shaky steep closer snapping him out of his fear as he pulled out a small yellow box, flipping a switch on the remote. Sakura blinked in confusion before her whole body was lifted into the air by a web of thick ninja wire. Sakura wiggled her shoulders and waist trying to get out of the cocoon of wires that trapped her in mid air. They even had her wings bound.

"There she is immobile! What are you imbeciles waiting for kill her!" Ivan screamed to the remain guards who took up their weapons and rushed towards the girl.

"Kuso," Sakura cursed quietly to herself as she realized her struggle against the thick ninja wire was proving fruitless.

What would she do now? Her eyes narrowed as the group of soldiers drew closer and closer to her captured body. No, she couldn't die now. She had to live so she could kill them all and free those children from their cruel ownership.

_I am stronger now_

Concentrating on a part of her mind, she felt the power within her stir as chakra was channeled through her mind activating parts of her brain she didn't know she had. Her eyes snapped open and focused on the approaching guards with a newfound determination.

Ivan saw this look in her eyes and trembled knowing what that meant.

_You don't need to defend me anymore_

Her bright hazel eyes widened and focused on their bodies as their limbs were ripped from their bodies by sheer thought. Their flesh and bones peeled away from their bodies in a most gruesome way as finger arms and legs were disassembled. They would have had a less painful ending if she had just killed her with her own two hands but her hands were bound and her mind was free.

_I can take care of myself_

"What the, your not suppose to be able to have that much control over your telekinetic! There's no way!" he cried in surprise.

Sakura said nothing she continued to rip a man's spinal cord out of his back with her mind. blood danced before her eyes.

Dark red.

Brigh red.

Warm blood.

Cold blood.

All in front of her eyes.

_I'm stronger now_

Blood and numerous body parts lay around her as the man known as Ivan took a step back in shock. She looked down at him and narrowed her eyes. Pooling chakra into her limbs, like she was taught so many years ago, she pulled at the cold gray twine surrounding her body and snapped it like a thread, releasing herself from it's grasp. Sakura beat her wings and gently floated down to the ground with ease. Her small Cinderella like feet dipping into the pool of blood.

After today she wouldn't be able to stand the stuff she was sure. This wasn't her doing the kilen, it was the power inside her. It was the Raven.

_I'm a lot stonger_

Slowly she advanced, stepping over a man's broken rib cage with an utter lack of empathy, and an abundance of apathy. How else could she stand all the blood without turning sick and throwing up?

"S…S…Stay b…back! We know all about you including you weaknesses. You won't last a minuet against us!" the terrified man stuttered backing up as he continued to fall over the words of his bluff.

"Would you like me to try?" Sakura asking in a hallow empty tone as she raised a hand towards the two of them.

Her actions broke the remaining layer of courage the two had left as the fell to there knees in fear. "Pleas don't kill us, we were only doing this for your own good. We knew you would be strong enough for this power, that's why we gave it to you in the first place. Please don't kill us, we don't deserve to die!"

Sakura stopped and bent down to their level and let her almond shaped hazel eyes stare into their own before speaking. "For my own good you say, if this is so then why did you tell me before the process that my mind would be taken over and destroyed? In the processes, sacrificing my body to this foreign power that now flows through my veins. Tell me, if I had died would you be weeping over my departed soul like you are now over your own?"

"We lied when we told you that the process would kill you. The proof is before you, you are alive and well standing before us just as we planne,." the man named Ivan stuttered horrible while his body shivered in fear as his lips lied once again. That was a mistake she was certain this man would never make.

"You lied to me? That was not a very nice thing to do, now I can't trust you. If you lied to me once what is stopping you from deceiving me with your words once again? Answer me that!" Sakura commanded as her deadly golden orbs narrowed in anger as her voice rose a bit.

"Please don't kill us, we'll do whatever you want, just don't kill us. Let us live please! We-"

The man's please were silenced as a clawed hand thrust it's self through his chest grabbing his still beating blood stained heart and squeezing it tightly till the vital organ burst in her hand.

"Nooo, don't- agh!"

The second one cried as Sakura claws tore deep into the flesh of his face going all the way back to snap his spinal cord as if it were a tree's branch. Twisting her wrist she ripped her hallowed out head off his shoulder's tossing it aside carelessly, letting it roll limply through the dirtied crimson red blood.

"And those who live a life of dark deeds and delights in his abundant sin, will die a dark death of the most horrible kind, only to meet with a fate worse than their deeds..." Sakura breathed softly letting her golden shaded eyes that mirrored her soul close for a brief moment.

_So now you can watch my back_

The pools of thickening blood filled the hallows in the worn marble steeps like a series of black mirrors, glossy and oval. A dark shadowy feather from her large midnight black wings, fell when she rustled the newly grown limbs, floating gently to the ground birthing a series of ripples as if landed in the crimson red liquid that was turning black.

"Black with their sin, it flowed through their blood as it dose through mine…" she breathed softly lifting a pail clawed hand up to her eyes, the crimson liquid of her victims snaking down her wrist and arm. She slightly shuddered at it's cold sticky touch and let her arms fall to her side limply. "My sin…ugh!"

Whatever she was about to say next was silences as a numbing pain rippled through her mind than stung behind her eyes. That telekinesis took a lot out of her after coming out of recovery so soon. Normally she wouldn't be able to scratch the surface of this power at such a young age but the dire circumstances must have pushed her to mentally adapt sooner that normal. No doubt, her actions would have a few negative side affects later on.

"Ugh…"

She moaned swaying dangerously before falling to her side, her knees finally falling out from underneath her due to the weight. Her dark midnight black wings bent sideways and fell around her like a cloak or protective cage. Shakily she reached up and stroked the silky black feathers ever so softly and gasped slightly as the sensation rippled through her body. They were already attached to her nerve center, meaning she would feel pain if they were ever hurt.

_And watch me fly_

Despite this, she smiled lovingly up at the black feathered limbs that were now hers. She liked them, they matched her black streaked pink hair now. The black the lay strung through her hair seemed to be more abundant at the middle and lower end. Her scalp was still mostly pink with only a few strands of the dark black color that matched her wings.

_Thank you _

Remembering her little transformation's smaller affects, she reached up to her face and pulled a stray clump of hair up to her golden almond eyes for expectation. It was still mostly pink with a lot of black streaks mixed through her messy mane. Her dark red lips bend in a downward frown when she spotted a lump of blood mixed into her hair.

_Naruto_

That's right, on her way to his place she had killed every sentinel, guard, sentry and solider her scenes fell over. That being said, there was not a single man alive in the entire building that once worked for the two now dead brothers. Their limp lifeless bodies now stained with blood lay scattered throughout the building slashed open and disembodied horribly. Some with faces twisted horrible in fear, frozen like such for eternity. Others were completely mangled so horribly that they no longer resembled humans in the slightest.

_Sasuke_

All the same, they were dead, slain by her hands. There must have been hundreds and hundreds of them and yet she pushed on, not even batting an eye in concern as they fell one by one. She still remembered the feeling that flooded through her system when she was plowing through the mass of bodies.

Nothing.

She felt nothing.

Nothing or them and nothing for their deaths.

_Kakashi _

This surprised her since she was never one the take death lightly. Being a nurse for so long burned the desire to keep your patient alive deep within her conscious. But then, Tsunade hime was once a nurse -now a doctor- and look at what she did her apprentice. Where was her sympathy then? Where was her concern for a human life that was supposedly precious to her? It most likely didn't exist at all.

_You made me stronger_

Growling as painful memories better left forgotten resurfaced in her mind, Sakura turned over on her side and pushed her body up to a steady standing position. Her anger gave her strength. Closing her eyes she focused on spreading her scenes over vast distances and levels of the underground torture building.

A smirk graced her lips after a few moments of silence. Just as she though, not a soul alive except for herself and the children.

"Yes, it is finished." She softly murmured as her bright hazel colored almond eyes glazed over in weariness. "…Almost…finished."

Her body slowly turned to face the exit as one leg stepped out in front of the other in a slow, almost robotic movement. Her dark black wings shifted out to help her keep balance as she headed down the halls towards the cells were they kept the slave children just barely alive.

-

-

-

_keisoku no dekinai itami to keisoku no dekinai jikan no nagare ga _

_subete wo uemete shimaou to shite mo_

_sore demo watashi ni wa kanjirareru _

_sora kara ochite kuru no wa ame de wa nakute. ._ .

-

Did I ever chain you down to my heart

'Cause I was afraid of you?

No,

I couldn't hold any longer

Love is not a toy

Let go of me now

The time we spent is perpetual

Our future is not real I

'll leap into the air

My broken wings

Still strong enough to cross the ocean with

My broken wings

How far should I go drifting in the wind

Higher and higher in the light

My broken wings

Still strong enough to cross the ocean with

My broken wings

How far should I go drifting in the wind

Across the sky, just keep on flying

-

_sora kara ochite kuru no wa ame de wa nakute. . . _

_-_

_-_

_-_

* * *

_I hope you like it, I know it was dark and bloody but that's pretty much the end of it. In the next chapter we move on to Sakura and the kiddies she frees. _

_Please, please, please Review! I don't mind flames so, flame if you want. But I would relly like to hear what you guys think._

_ja ne_


	4. Whisper Sweetly To Me

Disclaimer:/ I do not own Naruto in any way shape or form. I do not own Evanescence and it's song "Whisper"

Please read, enjoy, and review.

* * *

Chapter Four

Whisper Sweetly to Me

-

-

-

Catch me as I fall

Say you're here and it's all over now

Speaking to the atmosphere

No one's here and I fall into myself

This truth drives me

Into madness

I know I can stop the pain

If I will it all away

Don't turn away

(Don't give in to the pain)

Don't try to hide

(Though they're screaming your name)

Don't close your eyes

(God knows what lies behind them)

Don't turn out the light

(Never sleep never die)

I'm frightened by what I see

But somehow

I know

That there's much more to come

Immobilized by my fear

And soon to be

Blinded by tears

I can stop the pain

If I will it all away

Don't turn away

(Don't give in to the pain)

Don't try to hide

(Though they're screaming your name)

Don't close your eyes

(God knows what lies behind them)

Don't turn out the light

(Never sleep never die)

-

-

-

"Wha…what is that sound nii san and why dose it smell so much worse then it used to?" asked a trembling little girl, with spiky black hair and a terrible fear fixed in her scarlet red orbs dotted with black.

She snuggled deeper into her brother's chest, burying her tear stained face into his dirtied clothes.

"Don't worry little sister, it's nothing. Nii san will protect you from anything so you don't have to worry about anything," the said boy replied with a forced smile, his deep onyx colored eyes starring lovingly down as his sister as a few straight locks of his dark black hair fell over her shoulder.

"But I heard something and the smell is so very strong," she protested continuing to shake as she shifted her eyes to the barred part of their cage.

"I told you, I will be here to protect you from anything that could possibly harm you so you don't need to worry," he responded firmly tightening the firm hug he had on his sister.

The two siblings were twins with the boy being only a few minuets older than his younger sister. They had no names for each other aside from big brother, nii san, little sister and sissy. They were both five, being sold by their young single mother into the Yura no Nori for a small sum when they were only two. Ever since then, all the two knew was this dark threatening prison, that they both hated with every conscious fiber of the being.

The oldest looked over his sister's head at the other children in their cell. Most of them had names and a few even had memories of the land outside their dark underground world. It was depressing, seeing them all huddled in their corners pulled up into little balls as they shook in fright.

He and most of the older boys sat closer to the door placing themselves between the girls and the exit. His grip on his sister tightened a bit at the though of them taking her away. His sister was the most precious thing to him and he would gladly die before he let anything negative happen to her.

"Nii san I really hear something coming this way this time and it's getting louder," the small girl whined as a distant patter entered his ears as well.

"Don't worry just stay close to me and no one will be able to take you away from me," he whispered softly, letting his dark narrowed eyes settle on a spot outside their cell where that person would have to turn.

He heard a few other boys behind him rustle in movement taking up their protective positions in front of the girls who sat huddled in the corner. Some of the boys and girls in this cage were siblings just like he and her sister were, sharing the same protective feelings.

"Nii san, I don't want them to take me again," she whined, remembering the last time the managed to pry her away from her severely protective brother.

She could feel his body tighten as his eyes narrowed dangerously. He remembered that time all too well and that memory haunted him whenever her looking into his sister's scarlet red orbs dotted with black. They weren't always that color, they used to be a deep onyx black like his own.

Her cries of pain as they experimented on her still rang in his ears haunting his every thought and action. They hurt her when they took her and he would never let that happen again, never. When she was thrown back in to their cage she was bleeding a lot around the eyes and couldn't lift her eye lids for a whole week. And when she did she shocked everyone in the cell with her crimson orbs dotted with black.

A few of the girls including his sister started to cough at the horrible stench of burning flesh and freshly spilled blood, filled the air in a choking manner. It was so strong it was hard to breath properly.

"Big brother …the smell…it's getting stronger…" she coughed softly, as the smell choked away at their oxygen. "It's getting hard to breath."

"Hang on sissy, the smell will be gone soon, you'll get better soon, I promise!" he cried in fear, as she began to grow sleepy. "Come on sissy stay with me, don't fall asleep. Don't go anywhere I can't follow." His frown grew as her eyes started to drop.

'_Please God don't let her die,_' he begged silently lifting his eyes to the heavens.

His long dark locks flapped around his face as a strong wind filled their cell casing out the bad air replacing it with a purified atmosphere. His eyes widened as a few black feathers floated to the ground settling around him and his sister as well as a few other kids who were having trouble breathing. The feathers smelled sweet, almost like Sakura blossoms or maybe jasmine. It was the sweetest scent to ever enter his senses, and he almost cried in relief as it chased away to putrid smell.

He did however let a few stray tears fall when he head his sister stir and lift her eyes to meet his. "Oh Sissy, see I told you everything would be okay, just like I said."

"Big brother…" she stuttered softly.

"Yes sissy?" he asked, in concern as he met her blank stare. She said nothing more but weakly lifted a finger to point to a shadow outside their cell with two large black wings of the deepest midnight black.

"What the…?" he stuttered as his eyes widened in fear and surprise as a few of the boys in the cell scurried as far away from the opening as possible.

The shadowed figure shifted from one leg to the other and steeped forward. Her strides were smooth and graceful as her wings helped her keep her balance. Something dark dripped from her long fingertips. The dark haired boy scrunched up his nose as he recognized the liquid as blood. Her hands, her arms, her entire body, was covered in it. Everyone seemed to flinch slightly when she feel forward onto the iron bars as if to pass out.

She shakily reached up and grasped the cold gray bars in her bloodstained hands and pulled herself up slowly. Her breathing coming out in ragged bursts and high pitches. Grunting she pulled on the bars, leaning backwards while digging her feet into the stone floor. She hissed slightly as the metal rods began to give way. The children there, despite their young age, could all sense the erratic chakra patters that she channeled though her arms and hands to give her extra strength.

The patters were very unsteady and wavering most likely due to the fact that they were the last drops of a once deep well of chakra.

The iron groaned under the strain and started to bend outward towards her hands. With a deep growl, she turned her shoulders and shifted her body backwards finally pulling the door part of the cage off. A few of the girls squeaked and cried out in fear as her shadow fell over them in an ominous black shade, heaving up and down with each and every breath.

"You…all…" she breathed, taking a steep forward only to come crashing down to her knees, her black colored wings falling out around her like a coat or cloak.

Sakura moaned softly to herself as her hazy vision blurred and spun out of control, refocusing only for a brief moment. She breathed in deeply as her shoulders shook in the effort. Stretching her arms out she slowly and shakily began to crawl towards the children, who in turn shrank back in fear of her ragged and bloodied appearance.

Seeing they flee from her, she stopped and drew back herself pulling her legs underneath her, her arms encircling her shivering pale body. Her head was bent letting forward her multi colored locks fall around her as her wings drew closer to her frail body.

"They… are all… gone," she whispered softly not bother to look up to see if her message was delivered.

A soft patter was heard and she slowly lifted her eyes to see a pair of small creamy white hands clasp around her face in a affectionate manner. She shook at the human contact that showed no hostility, something she had not felt in a long, long time.

The small girl with ragged black hair and crimson colored eyes, dotted with black, was smiling sweetly at her, before drawing her arms around her neck and hugging Sakura. Two twin streams of diamond colored tears snaked down Sakura's cheeks, escaping her tightly clutched eyes as she hugged the small girl back.

"Sissy no, she could be dangerous don't," her brother cried, taking a few steeps forward, silently cursing himself for letting his sister slip though his arms during his numbed amazement at the creature before him.

"No…She's not bad. She's really nice, I can tell…" the red eyed girl mumbled, pulling back to stare into Sakura's glistening saffron hazel eyes. "She saved us."

"What are you talking about sissy? What do you mean 'she saved us'."

Sakura parted her lips and spoke up before the boy's sister could reply. "You were all fated to... eventually be tortured into the Yura no Nori's perfect little solider slaves. Many... of you... posses bodies and wills too weak for the transformation...huff... and would have most defiantly... perished if you... went through... with it."

"And how have you saved us from this fate?" a boy named Ken'ichi asked, stepping forward. He appeared to be the oldest child in the cage with messy dirty blond hair and dark chocolate colored eyes. Sakura could see a few scars traveling up and down his exposed arms and guess there were many more concealed beneath his cloths.

Just like her.

"I wouldn't say I saved you from this fate but I did eliminate those who planed to execute this plan," Sakura replied, calmly watching his eyes grow wide for a moment connecting the dots between the blood on her hands and the smell of death that hung heavily in the air.

"You…killed them all?" he stuttered a little awe struck at such a feat.

Sakura sourly chuckled to herself shaking her head before replying. "Why do you thing they didn't keep children over a certain age. I was overlooked due to my limp attitude but they made the mistake of pushing me too far by placing this power on me."

"Power?" a small chestnut haired gild with bright blue eyes asked speaking up. Her name was Tomoko, most likely the smartest child out of the entire group.

"Did you really think these thing were natural?" Sakura laughed, moving her drooping wings up and spreading them slightly.

A few of the younger girls stood up from their huddled position and crawled closer to the winged, ex ninja, stopping just beyond wing reach. Sakura smiled at their muted expressions as they stared at her feathered limbs with wonder.

"May…um…can we touch them?" one of the girls asked, shyly stepping forward. She had dark navy blue hair and bright blue eyes that gleamed with hopefulness. Sakura heard her name was Aoi from one of the boys.

Sakura laughed a bit and nodded allowing them to proceed with their physical expecting. It felt weird as they pulled the third joint of her wing out and gasped as her feathers flexed back and forth, disappearing within the fold when pushed shut. I almost felt like someone was poking and prodding her arm or leg, just coming from her back.

The boy from before with messy blond hair stepped forward and bent down to look into Sakura's eyes for a moment before extending his hand. "I didn't formally introduce myself, My name is Ken'ichi. I'm the oldest one here being eight an a half, I'll be nine in a few months. What is your name?"

Sakura nodded taking his hand in her own and shaking it. "Nice to meet you Ken'ichi, I'm Sakura. I'm sixteen now I'll be seventeen in the spring time. I guess that is a long way off since it's only just summer."

After that introduction it seemed as if she was confirmed to be someone to be trusted. Kids from all over the cell started to huddle around her poking at her wings and marveling at her hair color. It surprised her how many young ones were kept in the cell. The number must be averaging out around two hundred, but most likely, a hundred and fifty.

During the entire time the red eyed child had never released her grip on Sakura's neck, even after her brother clamed onto her arm protectively.

"Sakura chan are you an angel?" one of the little girls asked bouncing up and down at her side with a bright smile.

The dark winged female laughed and patted the little girl's head, as other such questions were tossed into the air asking about her origin and such. It was like she was an instant celebrity with the slave children or something of that sort.

"Are you a bird?"

"Why is your hair pink?"

"Do you ever eat?"

"When was the last time you took a shower?"

"Sakura chan, will you protect us and take care of us from now on?" A little boy with messy silver hair asked, the hopefulness in his eyes could not be mistaken.

The pestering and chirping of the young ones seemed to ease for a moment waiting for the heavy answer. If they were forced to fend for themselves in the alien world it was just as bad as staying locked up in their dark underground prison.

Sakura smiled and pulled her legs underneath herself forcing her body to stand on it's own. The girl with red eyes let go of her neck and instead clamped onto her hand. Sakura's wings rose and tilted slightly outward as her long flowing hair fell to her ankles.

"I'm telling you now to remember this little fact above all else: That I will protect each an every one of you with my life," she looked around and noticed the signs of tiredness in a few of their eyes. I was pretty late for them and they would probably need some sleep soon. Her smile grew when she remembered what she had been doing for the past half hour. "And to start with I think you all need a better place to sleep than this cold floor. How dose that sound to you all?"

Small cries of joy and happy chirps of excitement sounded around her. Sakura led them down the halls and up a flight of stairs to were the two leader's privet quarters were located. She had come to this place in advance planning this very moment. Three king size mattresses were stacked on each bed, now dragged into their sitting area and laid out like sleeping bags with clean sheets and blankets. She had also pulled up their day beds and couches to make a few more beds for the needy children. A good amount of heavy sheets were doubled up to make even more beds.

Looking at the two adjoined room she guessed that there were enough beds for the children if they shared the mattresses and blankets. She didn't have the chance to ask if they liked their arrangements the squeals of happiness were to loud as dozens of small bodies rushed past her towards the blankets and beds.

"I'm taking that as a 'you like it'." She laughed in good humor joining a few girls snuggled deep into their blankets. "How do you all like it?" she asked, smiling at how they giggled to each other the way they should.

"We love it Sakura chan!" they chirped in happy unison.

Sakura laughed a bit and stood up to walk around the drowsy children. Some of them were already deep in the land of their dreams that were hopefully not nightmares for once. They looked so sweet and innocent snuggled up to each other and quietly settling down.

Her smile ceased when her eyes fell on a letter she found during her rearranging. The contents only worried her more making her eyes narrow.

She only knew these kids for a short amount of time but she was already terribly attached to them.

"Well have to move out of here before the month is up," she murmured darkly as her wings rustled in worrisome anticipation. "Or else something much worse then these guys will be hunting us down..."

-

_'We are the hunted, but only I know that. And that's the way it's going to stay.'_

-

-

-

Fallen angels at my feet

Whispered voices at my ear

Death before my eyes

Lying next to me I fear

She beckons me

Shall I give in

Upon my end shall I begin

Forsaking all I've fallen for

I rise to meet the end

Don't turn away

(Don't give in to the pain)

Don't try to hide

(Though they're screaming your name)

Don't close your eyes

(God knows what lies behind them)

Don't turn out the light

(Never sleep never die)

Don't turn away

(Don't give in to the pain)

Don't try to hide

(Though they're screaming your name)

Don't close your eyes

(God knows what lies behind them)

Don't turn out the light

(Never sleep never die)

Don't turn away

(Don't give in to the pain)

Don't try to hide

(Though they're screaming your name)

Don't close your eyes

(God knows what lies behind them)

Don't turn out the light

(Never sleep never die)

-

_Servatis a pereculum._

_Servatis a maleficum_

-

* * *

Yeah...I know it's really short. I really am too lazy to do much more than what I have been doing. But anyway, that's pretty much it, for the blood and gore, untill she has to go back to Leaf, later on in chapters. For now, it's going to be a bit more about the kids and her helping them. I like the next chapter and can't wait till I get to write and poste it. I'm enjoying all of this so far. 

Most of my time has gone into this, Pages of Ecstasy, and my newest work; Under a Red Stained Sky (that will be up soon). Please don't worry about it being so short, I updates sooner than I planned and didn't have enough time. (stupid me) I promise the next chapter will be _much_ longer.

Please review!

Ja ne


	5. Daughter of Death

Disclaimer/ I do not own Naruto in any way shape or form. I do not own Princess AI or it's song Daughter of death, though it is awesome.

Please read, enjoy, and review.

* * *

Chapter Four

Daughter of Death

l

l

l

l

I was  
born through the blood of angels  
Born through the veil of a storm  
born without love inside me  
born with a need to preform

Born out of vengeance  
born out of scorn  
Born out of hatred  
Out of love torn

Born with a mission  
Born with a drive  
Born with a need  
With a will to survive

Now I'm going to show you  
What I'm really all about  
No more pretensions:  
No more frothing at the mouth

There's no use hiding  
All my fears deep inside  
I'll wear them on my shoulder  
like a badge of pride

Cuz I'm a daughter of death  
From my very first breath  
I'm a daughter of death  
Blood red as Macbeth  
I'm a daughter of death  
living a filthy mess  
I'm a daughter of death  
Just a daughter of death

l

l

l

l

"I know you may find this unsettling, but a deal is a deal."

Tsunade looked up from her warmed sake and glared at the man. "I don't really car anymore since it's over with, but I would like it if you would stop rubbing in my face every time we meet. I am the ruler of this village, I should not be see with the likes of you too often, people will talk of this."

"And yes. And then they'll ask question, and then they'll start snooping into your business, and then they'll find out what kind of person you truly are, and find out about all those nasty little secrets you have been hiding these many years, _princess_," he snickered, taking a sip from his sake as well.

"There you go again, rubbing it in my face, over and over and over again. That is so annoying. You know it wasn't the easiest thing for me to do, but I did it and in the end I kept my word, so what more do you want."

"I come here to share a friendly conversation and I get snapped at and with such nasty words too. I'm hurt, princess."

"Nothing between us is friendly and you can stop calling me that, I find it to be annoying coming from someone like you," Tsunade hissed with narrowed eyes, filled with venom.

"Heh. You really are a cruel person, I'm glad I choose to do business with you. How many people can you find now a days that are willing to sell their own adopted daughter to the devil just to square off some old debts and help her little village?"

"You make me sound so evil."

"You did the right thing. Our research has never been better and now you can have a sample of the finished work to try out on your own shinobi. It's a win, win situation here."

"Not for everyone."

"Oh yes, your apprentice. Someone had to take the fall for the good of the village. Isn't it right to sacrifice one life to save a hundred? You were completely in the green with your decision. You did the right thing giving her to us. I know she may have been close to you, but aside from you, there is no one else in the entire world with perfect chakra control before the age of eighteen. We needed her and you needed money."

"Whatever, I only have a little longer until my break is over and I have to go back to paper duty. Just hand over this month's payment and the documents you promised and you can be on your way."

A folder was slid across the table alongside and envelope that was fattened with the many bills that cost the freedom for one unfortunate soul.

Tsunade looked inside the envelope and counted the money.

"This will do for the month, you may go now."

"Getting rid of me already. You truly are a col woman, Tsunade hime. I though I could stay with you a little longer and tell you about how our little bird is doing in her new surroundings."

"Like I said earlier, I don't care. That girl is dead to me. I don't want to hear about her anymore than I have to. It's like bringing up a conversation about a dead person."

The man sitting across the table from Tsunade chuckled and took another slip from his warm drink. "Do you regret what you did? Selling a human being into the hands of those who would treat her badly with the full knowledge of what would happen to her. She was only fifteen, sixteen now."

"I regret nothing, and like I said a thousand and one times, I do not care what happens to that girl. What is important is what happens to me. I've lost enough to become numb to the effects. From the beginning I was never really fond of the girl. She was too much like myself. Surpassing me was in her future is she stayed around," she replied with a sour tone in her voice that could have been because of the Sake or her displeasure with the man she was sitting with.

"You are almost as cruel as I."

"Almost. I doubt anyone will ever be as evil or as cruel as you."

"Then you should know by now that compassion only leads to misery. It is better if you do not attach yourself to anything of this world. Live as you and I do, devils in the skins of humans, for in the end, that is whom the world will belong to," he chuckled with much delight in his voice.

"I'll drink to that," Tsunade mumbled, holding out her small round cup.

The young man before her lifted his own and gulped down the rest of it's contents. "Well now, I must be getting back. I was told before I left that my men were planning on installing a formula we like to call the _Raven_. It's a very dangerous test but I have confidence in my men, they will not blunder this up when our little bird has been acting so well for so long. I am looking forward to seeing the final results of all my time and research in this one beauty."

"I suggest you take car, it's a week of traveling to get where you're heading and if I know you, you'll turn it into a month with all your pointless detours that leas you nowhere."

"You never know. One day one may pay off for me."

"I hope so, take care."

"I will. May your house be blessed, Tsunade hime." And with a bow and a wave of his hand, the young man stood up and exited the expensive tea house that was reserved for the Hokage on this day.

"I hope you fall in a shallow grave, Mandara Uchiha."

l

In the beginning, the number of children that Sakura had rescued was exceedingly large. But after finding a village that had lost over thirty eight kids a raid connected to her imprisonment, Sakura was able to find homes for thirty eight plus forty seven who had found adopted homes. Now the number of children was less than a dozen. Eleven lovely children to be exact.

Sakura ran her sharpened nails through her long two toned colored hair trying to keep it out of her striking green orbs. All the younger children were out in the halls playing hide and go seek or tag...or maybe both. She took this opportunity to 'hide' in the records room and do some digging on who these people were and what they were up to. So far, no luck. There were thousands upon thousands of documents piled up high and stored in files marked in a code she did not know. It was frustrating having to go through so many.

So far all she really knew was that this organization was called the _Yura no Nori_, meaning beginning of the government and that it was what looked like a side project to something much greater and something a whole lot bigger. Thoughts of Orochimaru entered her mind, when she found a few projects on snakes, but there wasn't enough evidence to prove that theory.

She picked up one file that had a design for a pair of skeleton like wings with snakes wrapped around, slithering and coiling. It looked a lot like something that snake obsessed pysco would dream up, but then, the rest of the experiments didn't look it. If anything, it looked like many people.

"So maybe Orochimaru is the chief behind all this and everyone that was working here were just...minions. Those two brothers looked like they were running most of the show here, though. Somehow this doesn't feel like Orochimaru, but at the same time..." her words hung in the air as she dropped the paper on to a table and picked up another two.

"It's all so confusing." Her eyes closed and then reopened, adjusting to the dimming light after another light bulb fizzled out on her. It didn't make that much of a difference, but after studying little words and notes in handwriting that looks like chicken scratch on sand dunes, anything will get to you. The lighting, the easiest.

Setting down the papers in her hands, Sakura moved on to another table, knocking her hit bone into the side of another table. Due to her lack of food, that bone had been sticking out more than it should have. "Ow," she hissed, backing up.

When she had bumped the table, a pyramid of scrolls that had been neatly stacked had fallen over, spilling out onto the floor in a small mess. Cursing her clumsy ways, she bent down to pick up a few, tossing them carelessly onto a different table. As you could guess, there were a lot of tables in the room, all with documents of some kind.

"Matte, what's this?" the green eyed girl whispered in question, holding a up faded black scroll with what looked like, a red cloud acting as a seal.

The seal was broken.

"Akatsuki!" Sakura breathed with surprise.

Didn't Orochimaru use to work for the Akatsuki at one point, before he was kicked out for an attempt at stealing the eyes of Itachi. Sakura had studied this in great detail since it applied to Sasuke and why the snake sannin would want with her former teammate. Not that she was into Sasuke anymore. Truth was, she really didn't care if he ever came back.

This scroll looked old, it could be from the time when Orochimaru was working with the Akatsuki. Judging by the coloring on the outside, she would place it around four or five years, maybe more. It was hard to tell with so much dust covering the thing. She had never been really good at that sort of thing, judging the age by appearance, but had taken a small training session on the art, just in case something like this happened on a solo mission.

Pushing her thoughts aside, she opened the scroll, surprised that there was no trap or spell preventing herself from doing so. Her eyes widened at the first words before the paper turned to dust in her hands, completely dissolving out of it's original form.

"I should have known. That was too easy," Sakura scolded, looking down at the pile of dust in her hands. Thankfully Sakura had a photographic memory, and those few seconds that it took the old trap to kick in were all she needed to get the first half memorized.

Rolling the image around in her head, she began to decode it. The first part was instructions to meet someone at some place at a certain time. That date went back...seven years, longer than she though. Rushing past a large gap that was irrelevant, Sakura began looking for names she could recognize. Nothing...nothing...nothing, there at the end...all it was were the initials U and M.

U and M? Who would have a last name that started with a U? H and U were initials you didn't see ofter, since the Hyuga and the Uchiha clan didn't like other clans sharing the same initials or something of that matter. The clans were powerful and the were prideful, what more could you expect from someone like that? Itachi was and Uchiha from the Akatsuki, but his initial would be I, not M.

"At least I know that the Akatsuki were involved in the experiments that went on with me. I'll have to thank them sometime soon," she hissed darkly to herself, remembering the faces of so many tortured children who had been dragged from their homes and loved ones.

Sure, she herself took a beating one time too many, but it wasn't that much of a deal for someone who grew up, training to become a ninja. She was sixteen and an jonin now. She was used to things like this happening in battle. But these kids, who were five, six, seven, up to eight and nine, were not used to this kind of pain and torture. It was alien to them, and rightly so.

Growing up, Sakura never spent much time enjoying her childhood. All of a sudden she was forced the grow up when she saw what was happening all around her. And then when she had grown up, she had realized what she had lost, and just how precious it truly was. These kids lost their childhood, and if they couldn't fight to get it back than she would!

"Sakura nee chan, I could you."

Sakura whirled around to see young Ryuu standing in the doorway with a smug grin on his lips and a cocky air that surrounded him. He was most likely proud at finding the biggest member of their little family, he being oldest next to her.

"Oh darn, you found me, and I thought no one would bother to look all the way back here for me. You really are good at this. I'll have to steep up my game next time," Sakura laughed, tossing the dust off her hands. "I didn't even feel you coming, you little sneak."

"Hah, I'm going to be a spy one day. That's what they had planned for me. No one can feel, hear, or smell me coming. I'm going to be the best of the best one day," he boasted.

Sakura smiled and stepped over most of the books and table, landing next to the young boy. "Oh really? If you're going to be the best of the best, you're going to have to be better than me. You think you have the guts to go toe to toe with me?"

The young boy blushed deeply at how closely Sakura was to him, leaning in her face to his. He could clearly see her curved lips grinning at him with a slyness that was special to her. And her eyes were opened wide and seemed to be glimmering down towards him. Oh he wished they were. "M-m-may-maybe...maybe one day..."

Sakura laughed at how cute he looked. "Yeah maybe one day, you never know what the future has planned for you. So, have you found anyone else aside from me?"

"Y-you were the last one. Everyone else is in the kitchen eating snacks from the village trip we took. I've been looking for you ever since I found Aoi. She was hard too, but I found her after a while. I found everyone."

"What! They're eating Pocky without me?! That stuff is going to be gone by the time I get there! Don't worry Pocky, I'll save you!" Sakura screamed dramatically, jumping over another table in the direction of the doorway, leaving a slightly red Ryuu behind the watch with a hidden smile as the slim angel like figure jumped away. No matter how funny she acted, she always looked beautiful to him.

It was quite obvious to everyone around him, that he had a small crush on Sakura. Even though he was only nine and she was sixteen, to him there was hardly a difference. She was tall (to him anyway) thin, graceful, funny, and easy to talk to. Most of the people he met in the holding cells were other children who were scared of everyone and everything. It was hard for him to talk to anyone without working for a long time to win their trust. With Sakura, she was like magic. She was just, there, ready to talk, ready to listen, ready to help. He had never met anyone like that before.

"Hey, Dragon chan, you coming?" She even gave him his very own nickname. It was the first one he ever had and so it was a special thing to him even more so if it was from her.

"H-hai Sakura nee chan. Wait for me."

"Hurry up, the almond covered Pocky are always the first to go," she called, standing in the doorway with her big black wings spread and ready to carry her to her destination, though he knew she would not use them in such a small hallway. She couldn't.

That was another thing, she had these big black angel wings. this would normally be something that scars people, but for him, growing up where he did, they only added to her radiance. He remembered touching them when he first met her, during the liberation. They were so soft and fluffy underneath his hands, it was like touching a cloud. And on top of that she looked so cool when she flew with them. She could fly far, since she was still getting used to them, but when she did go the short distance that she did, she was like a real live angel.

"I'm here, don't leave without me," he stated, grabbing onto her hand, even though he felt childish for doing so. He didn't mind feeling childish around her as long as he was around her. Holding onto her hand was a bonus in and of it's self.

"Okay, then, come on, Dragon chan."

He felt his cheeks burst aflame with pink and red and she dragged him along, calling his name. "Hai, hai, Sakura chan!" She never noticed how he left out the nee chan in her name.

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Sakura pulled out another stick of almond covered Pocky, sucking on it in pure delight as she toweled her hair dry.

Now that most of the children were gone, everyone had their own room and bathroom, including Sakura. However, most of the children opted for sharing a room since no one really liked being alone. And funny thing was, the all choose room surrounding her own. All she had to do was take a few steeps outside and she was at someone's door.

She preferred it that way. It was easier to get to anyone if there was ever an emergency or s urgent need with one of her kids. Yes, they were her kids, at least she thought of them in that way. They were all close to her heart, possessing it a bit too much for it to be healthy. And with in the past two weeks, she had only come to love them more.

She was still very wet from her shower, dripping a small puddle around her as she walked across the room in nothing more than a short ivory robe that was sticking to her like a second skin. There were two deep holes that allowed her wings to slip out, but she kept them neatly folded againts her back so that you could scarcly see them through her hair of black and pink.

It was hard for her to find anything very feminine for her to wear to bed, so she normall opted for an over sized shirt and her panties. Hey, it worked. She was about to exchange her robe for a shirt, but was waiting till she dried off a bit more before she did anything. If Ino were with her now, the blond would tell Sakura that she was damn sexy. And it wouldn't be a lie.

A long piece of hair fell down in front of Sakura's face, blocking part of her vision. Without giving it much though she flicked the dawn colored lock back, mildly abused at how soft it felt after a shower. Once she started fighting again, she would cut her hair, but for now she wanted to be a mother to these kids, so she choose to keep her hair long, no matter how inconvenient it was to brush and comb everyday. The little girls loved braiding it fo her, even if they didn't always come out straight.

Yawning, Sakura climbed the small steeps up to the elevated part of her bedroom where there was really a window that led outside. Her room used to belong to someone important, since this was an underground base without any windows, except for those caved through the rock. So yeah, a window was a big deal in a place like this. Aside from the window, the furnishings were extraordinary and elegant in every way, with their detailed carvings and polished surfaces, Sakura felt like a princess. No, a princess had to take orders from a king, she was a freaking queen!

Drawing closer to the opening her calm smile seemed to slip away. Her eyes hardened and seemed to melt into a hazel that in turn, shifted to a striking gold, slid down the middle by black. It was the raven half of her taking over her appearance. Already her nails were growing into claws and feathers were starting to grow out of her hair in the black parts.

There was a chakra signature outside her window. And it felt like and old ripened one. Whoever it was outside her window was either really bad at hiding so much of a signature, or was so powerful that he/she couldn't. That last though scared her a little since this place did have connections to the Akatsuki. She knew for a fact, they were all very powerful. Duh.

Slowly opening the window, Sakura appeared to be doing nothing more than enjoying a cool breeze the night had to offer. Stepping away from the window she position herself a good three yards away and waited for a few moments, hoping for her captor to let his guard down at the lack of her sightings. It was an old ninja trick she picked up from Kakashi.

_ 'Now or never.'_

Running forward, Sakura quickly flickered out the window and rolled onto the ground, holding the kuni she had picked up from her nightstand. Her hair whipped wildly around her as she stood up and punched a form in front of her with her empty fist.

_Someone _dodged. There was someone out there.

Pouring chakra, bother her own and that of the raven inside her, Sakura swung again, kicking this time as well, hoping that one of her attacks would land on the shadowed target. She could have sworn she hit him once, bit it was dark and it was hard to tell.

Feeling him close by she swung her weapon around and pinned him to at rock wall. He easily pusher her off and rolled around so he was the one bearing down on her. He was much bigger and stronger than thin little Sakura. Taller too. She wouldn't have an easy time getting him off of her with all the power in his arm.

Sakura hissed and glared up at the man holding her down, only to gasp in shock at the sight that was last in her mind. It was blood red with three little spinning dots around the iris. An bloodline that only belonged to those of the Uchiha clan.

"Sharingan," Sakura gasped right before the commas began to spin.

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I was raised from burning ashes  
Raised on tragic crimes  
Raised from the cries of chaos  
Raised on borrowed time

Raised by the darkness  
raised by the night  
Raised by the vultures  
By the claws of fright

Raised to be hated  
Raised to be love  
Raised to be doomed  
By the powers above.

Now I'm going to show you  
What I'm really all about  
No more pretensions:  
No more frothing at the mouth

There's no use hiding  
All my fears deep inside  
I'll wear them on my shoulder  
like a badge of pride

Cuz I'm a daughter of death  
From my very first breath  
I'm a daughter of death  
Blood red as Macbeth  
I'm a daughter of death  
living a filthy mess  
I'm a daughter of death  
Just a daughter of death

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Author's Note:I am so sorry to all of you who waited so long for this to be updated. Some more than others (you know who you are, you wonderful people!). Um, yeah, been busy with school and work and after school activities and such. If I had more time this would have been up a while ago, but you know how it is. anyway, here is your chapter and I hope you all enjoy it.

An another note, who else aside from me loves the 3/4 and 1/2 view. The whole page thing was killing my mostly-dead eyes. I like it and I'm happy that they added it. But that's not really important...um review, yes, that's important. Very, very important.

Review!

Ja ne

-Vesper chan

Submit Review Report Possible Abuse Add Story to Favorites Add Story to Story Alert Add Author to Favorites Add Author to Author Alert Add Story to C2 Archive 1. Prologue2. This Heart That's Healing3. Birth by Broken Wings4. Whisper Sweetly To Me5. Daughter of Death 


	6. I wish I had an Angel

Disclaimer/ I do not own Naruto in any way shape or form. I do not own Nightwish or it's song I wish I had an Angel, though it is awesome in every way.

Please read, enjoy, and review.

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Chapter Five

I wish I had an Angel

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Deep into a dying day  
I took a step outside an innocent heart  
Prepare to hate me fall when I may  
This night will hurt you like never before

Old loves they die hard  
Old lies they die harder  
I wish I had an angel  
For one moment of love  
I wish I had your angel  
Your Virgin Mary undone  
Im in love with my lust  
Burning angel wings to dust  
I wish I had your angel tonight

I'm going down so frail n cruel  
Drunken disguise changes all the rules

Old loves they die hard  
Old lies they die harder

I wish I had an angel  
For one moment of love  
I wish I had your angel  
Your Virgin Mary undone  
Im in love with my lust  
Burning angel wings to dust  
I wish I had your angel tonight

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_"Sharingan," Sakura gasped right before the comas began to spin._

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" he hissed. Oh his voice was so dark and so deadly. It was as if the night it's self had been harnessed into a verbal weapon aimed at her.

The shock overtook her, letting her eyes fade back to green, her nails shortening to their original length. The chakra bubbling inside her settled down and the raven's power all but faded away. She would always be able to feel it in the back of her mind, like a nagging though that would never leave. However, she soon flared up with life as her feisty ways returned to her.

"Let go of me you sneaky thief. This is my home now, you are the one that should be answering that question!" she hissed, struggling against his hold, making little progress. He was really strong.

"This place is a hell on earth. I have no qualms about killing anyone who dares to associate themselves with this God forsaken pit," he hissed with much anger in his voice, squeezing her wrists tighter. She would have sworn they were about to fall off in a few more moments of such a grip.

"I'm not too fond of the place either, but it's all we have right now," Sakura hissed surging chakra though her body, giving her the strength she needed to push this man off her.

He quickly retaliated with a swift kick to her abdomen that missed, his swipe at her throat with his kuni, however, landed a few inches below the collarbone, pricking her lightly. Regardless how small the wound was, the blade stung against her skin, causing her to screech out in pain. It was a wild banshee scream that pierced the night and all it's inhabitants, including the man attacking her.

"Damn you..." she hissed, covering her small wounds that hardly bled, her eyes now a golden color.

"I was just about to say the same thing about you."

Before Sakura had a chance to say anything back, the hurried footsteps from inside her room greeted her ears. Her scream must have attracted more attention then she thought. This was bad. She didn't know if her opponent had any qualms about killing children, but she wasn't about to risk finding out.

Flipping through a few hand seals, Sakura summoned a poisons smoke cloud around her, cutting off his access to her or the window. It would dissipate not long after summoned, but it gave Sakura enough time to scurry over to the window and jump through it. Tumbling awkwardly onto the floor, she almost knocked over one of the little ones, standing in her bedroom.

"Sakura nee chan! Was that you who screamed?" Hitome asked, with fear in her quivering voice, as she looked up at Sakura with her wide red eyes dotted with black. Her twin brother Yani stood beside her with a fear in his coal black eyes.

"I'm fine, but you all need to get out of here, quickly before-" A smoke bomb landing in the room exploding into a cloud of lifeless gray that choked out all sight.

"Sakura nee chan!" one of the small children cried in fright.

"Ryuu, get the kids out of here!" Sakura screamed, trusting the oldest boy to herd the rest of the kids out of her bedroom than had converted into a small war zone in a matter of minuets. Hopefully, he would be able to do that.

Sakura readied her lips to form another set of commands but were silenced by the cold steel against her throat. He was standing before her with a hand behind her head and a blade ready to kill. She only hoped he wouldn't kill the children if she did indeed fall, thinking nothing of herself until the very end.

"Why don't you kill me now?" she asked with contempt in her voice.

"I want to see the face of my opponent before I dismember it from the rest of the body," he hissed back.

Sakura snarled darkly, realizing she didn't have a chance from the beginning. She was too emotional and not really ready for a fight after coming out of operation so soon. She was just released five days ago, not even a full week from the bloodbath she brought to pass. That was a great deal vexing on her part and she was still recovering.

"Curses be upon your name then."

The smoke cleared and Sakura's eyes went wide at the sight before her.

"Sakura?"

"Kakashi?" she breathed in hushed amazement.

"Sakura, what are you doing here? I almost killed you-wait. You're suppose to be dead. You were dead! I went to you funeral. I saw them sprinkle your ashes into the wind!" Kakashi exclaimed with surprise in his voice, as he stumbled backwards in surprise.

"What? My Funeral? I was at yours! What are you talking about, and why are you even out here? Do you even know how far from Leaf this place is?" Sakura quickly replied with rabid breaths, climbing to her feet.

"Yes, I do happen to know how far from Leaf I am and I really don't give a damn what the distance is, I'm never going back there again," Kakashi answered, pointing to his scarred headband.

"Y-you betrayed Leaf?"

"They betrayed me. I found out about some things I should not have and was excommunicated from the ranks of ninja. I guess what they say is true, there are some secrets better left undiscovered."

"I don't like the sound of that," Sakura replied.

Kakashi grinned from behind his mask and waved his hand shortly in the air. "Don't worry yourself with stuff like that now. I'm just really glad I didn't kill you. You can't believe how happy I am to see you."

"And I you. But tell me, how do you know about this place? When you were trying to kill me earlier you said, "This place is a hell on earth. I have no qualms about killing anyone who dares to associate themselves with this God forsaken pit," or something like that. Did you have any encounters with the people that used to work here?"

"Used to work here? You mean they're all gone. I have a hard time believing they would abandon so much valuable work."

Sakura laughed sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head. "Well I guess you could say that, but the truth is they're all dead now. That it it's self is a long story and I don't want to get into it right now. It's really late. But getting back to my question, did you know any of the people here?"

"Hai, Tsunade sent me on a mission here and turns out I was a test subject on a age reversing drug. It worked somewhat and I feel and look maybe ten whole years younger that I once was."

Sakura narrowed her eyes in observance and noticed that Kakashi did look younger, not that he looked old before, but now he looked a few years older than her. Maybe four or five. "I'm guessing that wasn't a very happy time in your life. They don't numb you for any drugs do they?"

"No they don't."

Sakura was about to say something else when a knocking on her door brought her back to the reality that surround her on all sides. She still had her kids to look after.

"Sakura nee chan," one of the younger girls called, peeping into the room.

"It's okay Aoi, everything is settled, this man is not our enemy," Sakura answered with a warm smile the put the young girl's fluttering heart back into a smooth steady beat.

Kakashi looked quizzically at the young girl as she slipped into the room, followed by a pair of dark haired twins and a taller silver haired boy with dark clouded eyes that stared back at him with hate and contempt. That young boy was the first to speak to him.

"Why were you trying to hurt Sakura nee chan?"

"Pardon?"

Thankfully, Sakura stepped into explain. "Kakashi, these are some of the children that were liberated during the...um...incident. I am the oldest of them so they look up to me as a older sister, for you younger ones, as a mother. "

She then walked over to Ryuu and placed a hand on his shoulder since he only came up to her elbows when slouching.

"This is Ryuu, he is the oldest here and sort of the leader of all the kids next to me. Don't be mad at him for being overly protective. You can't blame him for that.

Ryuu glared at Kakshi all the same. "You still haven't answered my question. Why were you trying to hurt Sakura nee chan?"

"Ah, that's my bad. I didn't know it was her and mistook her for one of the workers here. I though this place was still crawling with those lab workers and scientists. My bad," Kakashi answered with a sheepish chuckle, rubbing the back of his head.

"Baka, how old are you? You're an adult, you shouldn't be making mistakes like that when you're such an old man."

Sakura snickered to herself behind her hand, trying not to let him know she was amused by the young boy's comment. "Sorry Kakashi."

"What? I don't like that old. If it's only the hair, it doesn't count. I've always had this kind of silver colored hair."

"Mine looks better," Ryuu commented brushing a stray moon light bang out of his eye. His hair was more of a white compared to that of Kakashi's.

"Well it's not my fault I mistook Sakura, it's been years since I last saw her and she looks so different with the..." Kakashi let his words trail off as he took a moment to actually look over Sakura for the first time. When they were fighting and talking, he never really noticed what she looked like in detail. All he saw was black and pink hair and a opponent before him.

Sakura noticed Kakshi starting at her and looked down at herself to see what was bothering him. She blushed a deep color of scarlet, seeing herself dressed in only a short ivory robe that had fallen apart a bit during the struggle, to expose a bit more flesh than she was used to. The fact that she was still wet made it even worse, since the robe was clinging to her body in such a way that would make any sane man loose his mind.

"Oh," she whispered in embarrassment.

Kakashi being the gentleman that he was, turned away and allowed Sakura to slip a larger, dark green rob around her body, covering herself in a more modest way. Oh he was going to need a cold shower soon.

"Sorry, Sakura chan."

"No, it wass my fault as well. I am Sorry you had to see that."

_'I'm not'_

"I'm okay. Just what are you doing here anyway? In this room, I mean."

"She was trying to get to sleep before you came along," Ryuu interrupted taking a steep to stand between the two old friends. "And how do you know Sakura anyway? You said it's been years."

"It has been, I was Sakura's old teacher when she was a ninja back in the hidden leaf village."

"Then you're an old man."

Sakura grinned at the stressed look on her former teacher's face. It was priceless. If Sakura didn't know any better, she would have guessed that someone took away his treasured books and burned them in front of his face. "Dragon kun, that's not something you say so bluntly. It's rude."

The young boy didn't look sorry as he looked over at Kakashi, but when he turned towards Sakura, he became a beaten puppy with looks that would put Bambi out of business. "I'm sorry Sakura nee chan. I didn't mean to be rude in front of you. Please forgive me."

"Aww, that's okay, just be more kind with your words next time."

"Anything for you, Sakura nee chan!" he chirped in a bubbly voice.

_ 'That little punk has it coming.'_

"I'm sorry if it's not in your time frame, Kakashi, but the kids are tired and I must confess, I fell wearisome myself. I should be in bed by now. Do you mind if I find you a room and continue this talk in the morning?"

"What's wrong with this room?"

Sakura's eyes narrowed and her kind smile dropped. "It's mine."

"So."

Insert evil death glare.

"Ryuu, would you mind finding Kakashi a room for _himself _to stay in while he is here?"

Ryuu smirked and Kakshi made a face that resembled a pouting child. "No problem, Sakura chan. I think we have one empty room down a few _dozen _hall ways."

"D-dozen? Sakura, I know they're rooms closer."

"Do you? Maybe I have plans for those rooms. Now be a good boy and follow Ryuu," Sakura chuckled with a sly smile. Kakashi knew this was payback for his comment earlier.

"Come on, old man."

"But Sakura!"

"Goodnight, Kakashi."

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Sakura dragged the bamboo comb through her long hair once more, repeating the process for what felt like the thousandth time within the past twenty minuets. Sure she told Kakashi that she needed to get to bed, but that was only a partial lie.

_"Hai, Tsunade sent me on a mission here and turns out I was a test subject on a age reversing drug. It worked somewhat and I feel and look maybe ten whole years younger that I once was."_

_Sakura narrowed her eyes in observance and noticed that Kakashi did look younger, not that he looked old before, but now he looked a few years older than her. Maybe four or five. "I'm guessing that wasn't a very happy time in your life. They don't numb you for any drugs do they?"_

_"No they don't."_

"So, they really were cruel monsters to all, not just myself. Why am I not surprised?"

Sighing lightly, she placed the comb down on the beauty stand she was sitting at. A pair of half lidded green eyes staring back at her with thoughts clouding over the color into one a shade or two darker than the original. And true to her visual aspect, there were a great many thoughts clouding her through and taking up room in her over worked mind.

Looking behind her she watched the great black libs attached to her back unfold and stretch out behind her, scattering a few loose feathers on the floor beneath her. She moved the bones attached to her back and watched her wings rise and fall, flap and fold. The looked so easy to move, and they were easy to move, but they were just like an extra limb. It wasn't effortless to move them around or ride the wind upon them. What would Kakashi think if he saw her now?

Flapping them once more, she folded them back up and shoved such thoughts out of her mind. She didn't care what anyone thought of her anymore. Only the children mattered to her.

Pulling her hair over one shoulder, she began to rapidly braid away, preparing for bed.

This time she would be true with her words and actually go to bed. Little lies like the ones she told Kakashi a few minuets ago always seemed to bother her inside. That was a fault that made her a terrible ninja worth of giving up on. Though, Kakashi said they gave her a funeral... Did they look for her at all, she wondered.

She remembered the village doing little to look for the old man that was beyond his prime and less than useful. Was that all she was, a piece on the chess board in this game of life? A pawn to be sacrificed?

A knock on the door startled her from her thoughts. "Who is it?"

"Sakura nee chan it's me, please let me in."

'_Hitome_'

"Come in, dear."

A tiny girl with ruffled black hair and red eyes stumbled into Sakura's room, hugging a pink teddy bear tightly to her chest. Sakura was a bit confused. She normally would sleep with her twin brother, it was rare to ever see them apart. Sakure didn't know what could be bothering the young girl so much that she wanted to leave her brother's side.

"What's wrong, hun?"

"My eyes hurt, but I don't want to tell big brother."

"Why don't you want to tell him?"

"Because then he gets sad cuz he can't protect me."

Sakura smiled softly and held out her arms to the small girl. "Do you want to sleep with me while I look after your eyes?"

"Muhuh," She mumbled into the fabric of her teddy bear."

Sakura picked up the small girl and carried her over to her queen sized bed, pulling back to covers. Sitting the young one down on her lap, Sakura placed her hands over the red colored eyes of the young girl. She frowned as the chakra that glowed green from her hands found something she didn't like.

Her eyes were decaying...crumbling away.

_ 'This much be because of the forced activation she was put through. I never though I would see another one with eyes like these, but I guess it's true. The Mangekyo __Sharingan will eat away at your sight if used too much."  
_

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Greatest thrill  
Not to kill  
But to have the prize of the night  
Hypocrite  
Wannabe friend  
13th disciple who betrayed me for nothing!

Last dance, first kiss  
Your touch my bliss  
Beauty always comes with dark thoughts

I wish I had an angel  
For one moment of love  
I wish I had your angel  
Your Virgin Mary undone  
Im in love with my lust  
Burning angel wings to dust  
I wish I had your angel tonight

I wish I had an angel

I wish I had an angel

I wish I had an angel

I wish I had an angel...

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Author's Note: 13th hour, thank you for your reviews and your PMs asking me to update this so much. You really motivated me to come back to this story and start writing all over again, even after my original chapters were lost. I meant to dedicate the last chapter to you, but I like this one better, so this goes out to you, cause if it wasn't for all your comments one a desired update, I don't think I would have found the drive to sit down and type it all out. Thank you, 13th hour!

I think this update took last time than the last one. Kudos to me on that. I'm going to be going away on a mini vacation in...two weeks I think. It all depends on when this comes out. So, there will be a rather large gap of updates during that time. Before that, I hope to drop a bombshell of updates on you guys. So, yeah, good news and bad news here.

Ja ne

-Vesper chan


	7. Chirldren of the Damned

Disclaimer/ I do not own Naruto. Nor do I own Iron Maiden or it's song Children of the Damned, though I think it's a very appropriate song, don't you?

Please read, enjoy, and review.

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Chapter Six

Children of the Damned

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He's walking like a small child  
But watch his eyes burn you away  
Black holes in his golden stare  
God knows he wants to go home  
Children of The Damned

He's walking like a dead man  
If he had lived he would crucified us all  
Now he's standing on his last step  
He thought oblivion well it beckons us all

Children of The Damned  
Children of The Damned  
Children of The Damned

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"I finally found you!"

Sakura looked up, only mildly surprised to see Kakashi standing in the doorway with a exasperated smile showing through his mask. It was well into his first day staying with her patchwork family and she thought he was doing well under the circumstances. Ryu wasn't the only one that didn't like having the older male take up her attention.

"Kakashi...is there something you need?"

"Need? Is it a crime to visit a friend?"

"No...but, I am very busy. I need to get so much done before the day ends," Sakura replied, letting her tired green eyes fall back down to a torn and frayed page in her book.

Kakashi leaned back a bit, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "Is that so? And why would that be?"

Sakura looked up, an annoyed look in her jade stained eyes. She was stressed for time as it was. She didn't need any more distractions keeping her from her required work even if it was an old friend. "It just is."

Kakashi nodded, stepping into the room, picking up a discarded book and reading the cover. "Advanced Guide to Human Fertilization." "Damn, these shit heads were a zoo of sick monkeys. I'm glad they're gone."

Sakura flinched, but continued reading through the papers before her. The action did not go unnoticed.

Kakashi sighed, placing the book back where he found it. "Sakura. Something happened that you're not telling me."

She answered without looking up, not daring to meet his eyes. "I didn't have breakfast this morning, I burnt some tost for Ryu kun, I got lost twice yesterday, I had to sew up the runs in a few of my outfits-"

"Something inportant, Sakura." Kakashi cut in, his voice stern. It was that teacher voice he used to use with her when she was a young girl.

"I knew there was something you wanted. Why else would you come to see me?" Sakura murmered, keeping the last part below a whisper, so that he wouldn't know how much the thought hurt her. He was from Leaf, after all. Were they really all the same?

"I came her because I'm worried about your health. You said it yourself, you didn't have breakfast. I heard from a few of the kids that you're not eating anything at all, that you spend all your spare time going through these papers, and that you hardly ever sleep. What's gotten into you? Why are you hurting yourself to such a degree. I know it has something to do with your past actions, regardless of what they were."

Sakura did not reply for the longest time, throwing papers and pre read scrolls over her shoulder and into a half filled bin. But Kakashi was good at waiting, and soon his efforts were rewarded with her answer.

"You're wrong. It doesn't have anything to do with what I did. I regret nothing outside of giving so much to the village that betrayed me without a care in the end. That is my only regret. From now on, I'm working to make a better future for myself and these chirldren."

"By hurting yourself?"

"I've changed...grown stronger... This is nothing compared to the hurt they put me though."

"But it's hurt regardless."

Kakashi heard Sakura make and irritated noise that sounded like a 'tisk' as she grabbed another chart and began plotting a possible path. "Hurt is something you have to learn to live with, Kakashi. Don't try to baby me just because I went a few days without food or much sleep. I'm not the little week girl you're used to anymore."

"I never said that, Sakura." Kakashi tried to explain, his voice still as calm and level as ever.

"You didn't need to." Sakura hissed, looking over her shoulder at the tall silverhaired teacher. Her eyes no long the normal jade green, but a fiery golden yellow, slit down the middle like a cat's. Only a few flecks of the orginal green dotten the outter sides. "You're actions spoke for themselves. I would have thought someone as brilliant as you would have known that."

Kakashi frowned beneath his mask, not liking how her words came out in hisses. And her eyes...this was the first time he really saw them like that. No doubt she went through hell to have them forced upon her. "Sakura..."

"I need to get this done. Please let me be." Sakura replied, closing her eyes and allowing them to fade back to green, a bit ashamed of what she showed to her former teacher. She knew she should be a bit more hospitable, but lately she was very irritable.

"Do you want some help?"

She shook her head. "No, explaining what I'm trying to do would take more time than it's worth. I'll do this by myself."

"I'm sorry... I'll leave you to your work."

Sakura looked up, about to say something more, but was silenced by the very obvious grin seeping though the fabric of his mask. She had expected him to be...something other than happy. She wanted to offend him, as sad as it sounded.

Frustration, lack of sleep, and hunger had driving her into such a bitchy mood. This was another reason she didn't want to be around the children. She didn't want the young ones to see her like this. No, especially not them.

"That's okay, I'll just come back and see you when you're not so grumpy," Kakashi joked slipping out the opened doorway with a half wave and a laugh that caused Sakura to redden and stutter.

"Kakashi!" she called out after him, feeling like she made some sort of mistake.However, he was either to far away to hear her voice or he just didn't care. She had a feeling it was the later.

"Dame old man," she hissed under her breath, picking up a random book, not really looking at the cover.

"I heard that."

She hissed in anger and threw her book at the doorway where his voice originated from, annoyance at being tricked evident in her actions.

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She stood in the middle of the room, a ornate seal drawn on the ground in fresh blood, the wound on her arm dried and healed. Her clothing lay discarded in a wrinkled pile off to the side, leaving her naked to the empty walls. Her wings shivered and slowly pulled themselves out, stretching little by little until they were fully extended.

Sakura breathed in deeply, letting her uncertainty show for only a moment in her emerald soaked eyes before the bled a dazzling gold. Her long pinkish hair began to flutter around her exposed body, shivering ever so slight in the wind that slithered out of the cracks from the seal that was painted on the ground.

She though this was all a bit much for something so simple, but if she was going to have to live with Kakashi in the coming months, this was a necessary step she could not over look.

She shuddered as the wind sent shivers up and down her spin, her hair now flapping like the wings of a dove. Or rather, the wings of a raven. The seal was bleeding it's rips wider and wider now.

Soon her wings froze up then shivered, letting their black feathers fall limply to the painted earth. Another rattle released another shower of black from her wings. Sakura could now see a bit of the bone. Another bolt running through her body shook all but a handful from her extra limbs. Only the most afflictive ones remained. Another jolt, this one the most painful, and the longer feathers were freed.

The process reminded her of the time she was first implanted with the extra limbs. And from there, various memories of past experiments flashed behind liquid gold eyes. Most of the time she was numbly found in a midway dream like state, still a result of the shock. This allowed the men in white to rip her open, sew her up, make her bleed, and change her to their liking without much pain to her.

Her mind wasn't with her body. It wasn't with the pain. It as numbly safe in a distance time and space. Drifting through the thoughts, trying to wrap it's self around the grim, impossible truth.

Still, that didn't mean she wasn't ever in pain.

Sakura breathed a sigh of relief as the seal faded to a dim color, bleeding backwards to change it's pattern. The hard part was over. Now came the painful part. Yes, in her mind they were two different things.

Her shoulder blades shuddered under her skin and shoved themselves upward, riping the flesh on her back open. The cut was long and deep, but her blood was frozen in place so she had little need to worry.

Her right wing folded it's first join and slid into the opening, letting the second join close under her skin as the forced wound was healed. The same went for her other barren wing, void of all it's feathers.

Sakura winced, hearing her flesh hiss as it was knit back into place. It hurt like hell, but she could handle hell. She lived in the worst of hell for years, the exact number she did not yet know, nor did she care.

'_It's worth it. With this fixed we can leave in the morning for the mountains. We've been pushing our luck as it is staying her so close to the deadline and his unwelcome visitor. No doubt they'll be searching for us after this.'_

Picking up her discarded garments, she slipped on her panties and draped a robe over her shoulders, liking how she didn't have to hide her wings. Still, she should keep her bare back free from exposure. The unnatural bones sticking out would look suspicious to anyone.

Forgetting her pants, she loosely tied her robe at the waist, letting her well devolved bust to show it's self off. If anything good came out of her torture, other than the kids and her power, it was her new boob job. Since she was designed with seduction missions in mind, they had to make her as close to irresistible as possible.

The look Kakashi gave her during their first encounter came to Sakura's mind, making her smile and laugh in a giddy sort of glee. They must have done a good job to make him react in such a way, considering what he read all the time.

"Sakura nee chan!"

Her now jade eyes flickered to the sealed entrance, mentally removing the locks and seals that were keeping it closed. A few burned and sizled as their own fire consuming them.

"I'm in here!"

The door opened to expose an young boy with his twin sister glued to his side.

"What is it, Yani?"

"You said you were going to have our celebration dinner with us tonight, right That old man is already at the table reading some stupid book. He keeps asking these really strange questions about you."

Sakura felt herself pale a little, imagining all the perverted questions a man could come up with while reading smut. Hopefully, he didn't ask Ryuu most of these questions.

"Will you come with us?" the young girl asked, smiling up at the older woman that was a mother and a older sister while a protector and a provider all in one.

"Of course. Allow me a moment," Sakura replied, grabbing the rest of her cloths, slipping into her high heal sandals. She would have to get rid of these in her room before entering the dining hall. She could only imagine Kakashi's expression when he saw her holding onto her bra and pants, asking what's for dinner. Not a good mental image.

"Nee chan?"

"I have to drop these off in my room first, Hitome."

"Ohh..."

Sakura smiled at the young girl, loving how beautiful her child like innocent was coming back into her actions. Before she, as well as ever other child, would question everything she did and said, expecting the worst to be right around the bend. Some still through there was still going to be evils ahead, though not from Sakura.

_'How smart they are'_

"Let's get going, you two," Sakura called out to the two, walking out of the room, almost skipping down the halls to keep the playful atmosphere present between the three.

They were only too happy to comply, following her to her room and then trailing her to the dining hall, making sure she didn't skip out on them. They almost reminded her of nin dogs.

Kakashi was already waiting in the room for her, and Sakura was suddenly reminded of their last meeting.

"Hakate."

"Sakura _chan_."

The pale skinned woman hissed at the suffex he added to the end of her name. "What's that for?"

Her gray haired teacher shrugged, smiling wildly behind his mask. "What, I can't call you what everyone else is calling you, even though I've known you so much longer."

"No."

"And why not?"

Sakura sat down at the long table that was piled high with leftovers from the kitchen and gifts from the thankful villagers, happy to have their children back. "You're not as cute as any of them here."

"Ouch, that hurt. You can be so cruel sometimes, Sakura chan."

Sakura snickered, pouring herself some of the dark red liquid the kids were not allowed to have. She didn't care if she herself was technically underage. The wine they had hidden at the bottom of the cellar was some of the best.

Kakashi noticed her lightened attitude and took on a hopeful expression. "Does this mean I'm forgiven?"

"For now, but who knows, it could be the wine talking," Sakura replied, knowing she would be in her right mind for a few more glasses. A few sips like this were nothing. Someone had to stay sober when the Hokage took her drinking. That memory made her frown.

"So what's the plan for tomorrow? I noticed the packing these little maggots have been keeping themselves busy with and I would have helped if I had anything to pack," Kakashi stated, interrupting her thoughts.

"There are some caves I mapped after dropping off most of the children with their families. I don't want to keep these guys here in case someone comes back to see how things are going with the experiments. I'm surprised things have been this quiet for so long. I don't like pushing my luck so...Kakashi I'm trying to be serious here!" Sakura turned red with embarrassment noticing what Kakashi's eye was staring at.

"Hmmm, what?"

Sakura picked up an empty goblet and chucked it at his head. "Stop staring at my chest, you pervert!"

"It's not my fault, Sakura chan. You were the one that was showing them off. How do you expect any sane man to look away?" Kakashi whined like a wounded puppy, rubbing the bump on his head.

She pulled her robe around her chest, tightening the sash to keep it in place. Kakashi whimpered a little, reminding the young woman of a dog that lost his bone. This only inraged her more, however, for the kids, she kept her temper in check. "Listen up, Kakashi, this is serious."

"I'm listening. I'm multi talented, you know."

"Don't remind me. Anyway, Tomorrow, bright and early, I want to take off. You'll be ready, won't you?"

"Sure, sure, sure."

"Good, cause if you're not, we're taking off without you. I don't care if you're late," she hissed reminding him of those days when she and the boys on team 7 were gennin and even chunin.

"I won't miss it, ninja scouts honor."

Sakura nodded silently, pulling out a small piece of paper that was hidden in the pocket of her robe. Wordlessly, she handed the charred piece of parchment over to her former sensei. He would be able to make more out of it than she would. "If it's not too much to ask, I'd like to see what you think about this."

Kakashi's mood was instantly grave, even though the entire room continued to vibrate with the whoops and cheers of happy children. Sakura didn't like the look on his face, but suspected it would come out, all the same. "I've heard rumors about Madara Uchiha being alive and active, but the sources were never reliable. If he was active all the way out here it's no wonder our scouts never picked up on his activities."

"So you think it's confirmed?" Kakashi nodded, gravely, handing the piece of paper back to Sakura. "I was afraid of this. There were early signs of maybe Orochimaru starting this crack joint but he defected a long time ago and was killed."

"This is worse than Orochimaru."

"Agreed."

"First thing in the morning."

"As soon as the dawn breaks we'll be out of here."

Kakashi nodded, pouring himself a glass of the red drink. "I only hope it's soon enough. For someone like him, four weeks is too long to let something go. Especially with the status of his group. Sasori, Kakuzu, Hidan, Deidara, Itachi, they're all dead, leaving a huge gap in his defenses. This place is an investment he needs. He won't let you or these kids slip through his fingers so easily."

Sakura's mind froze on her, remembering something once whispered on the other side of her prison doors.

_"__Death and revival. Will that be the medic's purpose?"_

It was right after she was taken, and the only time she was referred to as a medic. So it was something that stood out, only to be forgotten in time. What was their meaning? What did it matter if she was a medic?

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Now it's burning his hands he's turning to laugh  
Smiles as the flame sears his flesh  
Melting his face screaming in pain  
Peeling the skin from his eyes  
Watch him die according to plan  
He's dust on ground what did we learn

You're Children of The Damned  
Your back's against the wall  
You turn into the light  
You're burning in the night

You're Children of The Damned  
Like candles watch them burn  
Burning in the light  
You'll burn again tonight  
Children of The Damned

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* * *

I'm so tired.

This is where I'm suppose to talk to you guys and sht. So I'll just give you a heads up warning. My updates, however sluggish and slow they come, and going to become even more sluggish and slow. There is only one computer I can use and it has to be split three to four ways everyday and now that my dad has signed up for this energy saving plan, I can't use it after one until eight at night. So yeah, less time to write. I'm sorry, I really want to do this but sometimes the cards are out of my hands.

I'm aiming to end most of the stories I've started. For this I have six to seven more chapters in mind, Like Moths to the light has two to three. Shakespeare has three chapters left to go, for sure. Ecstasy...I'll keep doing that until I have twenty two- twenty three chapters, so you don't have to worry about her. As for the others, I don't really know.

Ja ne

-Vesper chan


	8. Silence

Disclaimer/ I do not own Naruto, or this song.

This chapter is deadicated to ~WhiteWitchFire on DeviantART! Please read, enjoy, and review.

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**Chapter Seven**

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Silence  
Stretching out between us  
I dream of a presence  
With essence  
And absence of doubt

Come closer  
Come and stay with me now  
Help me reconcile  
Come and stay a while

And I will find a home  
Because we love till the end  
We love till the end of the day  
Of the day

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Sakura stared out into the cloudy atmosphere that swirled around her. It had been around two months since she and her small family had defected from the abandoned base. So far there had been no signs of activity within three miles of where they were staying, but Sakura always seemed to feel uneasy. She didn't want to let down her guard so easily. Just because no one saw anything didn't mean they weren't out there, hunting for them. She was sure they were.

Satisfied with this end of the mountain, Sakura flipped back and began to run along the side of the summit towards the opposite side. She would have to go over there and watch for another two hours before returning to the others. It's not that she didn't enjoy their company, but it was suffocating some of the time. Especially now with this newly dropped weight on her shoulders.

Hitome's condition had worsened- a direct result from being forced to activate her clan's blood-limit at such an unhealthy age. Her eyes were crumbling away into blindness and Sakura didn't know enough about her bloodline to do anything about it.

Sharingan.

All she knew about it was what she had picked up form the archives in the hospital and that medical tests she had preformed on Kakashi. And even then, Kakashi was not an Uchiha like Hitomi was, so there was a great difference in how their worked in relationship to the eye.

When the Sharingan is first activated by a user, it has a different number of tomoe around a central pupil, varing among the wielder of the Sharingan, through continued use, evolves the Sharingan which involves gaining tomoe. The maximum number of tomoe in a conventional Sharingan is three. When the user gets three tomoe in each, he becomes able to predict all movement from his opponent.

The only level up from there is the Mangekyo Sharingan, which is said to be gained by the loss of a precious person or thing or people in your life. Was that how the first level of the Sharingan was reached for her? Had they murdered her friends right in front of her eyes and put the blame on her? It's a possibility Sakura didn't want to have to face. That girl was one of the purest beings on the face of the earth.

Sakura's shoulder stiffened and her eyes flashed gold.

"What are you thinking about?"

"What do you want Kakashi? I'm on lookout." Sakura looked back over her shoulder to take in the sight of her former teacher. His scarred headband was up, leaving his blood red eye exposed for Sakura to see and study.

Unlike the Byakugan, the Sharingan does not automatically appear from birth in a user; instead, the user has to awaken it . After this first appearance, the user can then call up the Sharingan any time he or she pleases. Due to its unique nature, however, Kakashi's Sharingan cannot be deactivated, and thus he usually covers it to conserve chakra.

Sakura must have been staring since Kakashi chuckled and faked a blush. "Sakura, you're embarrassing me with those bedroom eyes of yours. You know all you have to do is ask."

"Why is your Sharingan out?"

Kakashi huffed, disappointed with how professional Sakura wanted to act when it was just the two of them. How often did that happen? "You are going to grow wrinkles and age early in life. You're too stiff. What's bothering you."

"You're avoiding my question."

"So are you."

"I asked you first."

"I'm older than you, seniority rules."

Sakura huffed, annoyed. "I'm worried for the kid's, that's all. I don't want to admit it, but at this rate, Hitome will go blind if I don't find a way to reverse the deterioration of her Sharingan. It's not like a normal blindness. If it was, I wouldn't have so much trouble. I hate the woman's guts, but I wish Tsunade could help me with this. She was working on your eye before I was even a medic. If i only had some medical files from the Uchiha clan."

Kakashi didn't answer, choosing to remain standing behind her, slightly off to the left. A strong breeze blew the few stray stands of hair that had escaped her braid in to his general direction. He caught one between his fingers and twirled it around his thumb and forefinger. The black was fading away to it's natural cherry pink color.

Sakura either didn't notice or didn't care about what he was doing with her hair."Anyway, I'm just going to have to try my best I guess, and if worst comes to worst, I'll go back to the base and look around for some abandoned files, again. They couldn't have destroyed them all."

The strand of light pink hair fell from his numb fingers to mingle with the rest of her hair. "...Go back?"

Sakura nodded, looking over her shoulder to see his shocked expression. "Don't act like that. No one is going to be there. It's not as dangerous anymore." Sakura turned around full and crossed her arms over her chest. "Now it's your turn, why did you leave your Sharingan out?"

"There were chakra signatures up near the base. That's where I just came from. I didn't get close enough for them to see me, but there were certainly red clouds on their cloaks. You may not think it's dangerous up there, but if you had gone a day sooner, you would have been trapped in there with those guys outside. The base is out of the question."

Sakura was suprised-to put it mildly. "Y-you were at the base? When was that?"

"A few hors ago. I just got back."

The skin around her eyes tightened as she stared at the older man with shock and horror and maybe a bit of immature jealously. He went to the base when he knew there were people there and yet it was too dangerous for her. Akatsuki or no Akatsuki, that was unfair. She was probably stronger than him after all the crap those people put her through, and here he was telling her it was dangerous for her. he was smothering her!

"You went to the base... without telling me?" Her voice was dark compared to the unusual serious tone Kakashi was adapting to. "Why the hell would you do that?"

Kakashi was calm as he spoke. "Because if something happened, you would be the first to know and react. I'm not used to working with little kids like you are. Sure I was a sensei once, but that was with you guys. Aside from that, they listen to you and respect you more than they do me. They would question my orders but they would obey yours."

Sakura relaxed a bit, but didn't loosen the glare she held him in.

"I know you feel frustrated, and I want you to remember we're planning on living here. We can't risk exposing our position-and before you start, let me say I have taken into consideration your perfect chakra control. I know you would be great for stealthy missions like this, but you are needed here more so, right?"

Sakura huffed, remembering her earlier dilemma. Hitome and her eye issue. It was frivolous to wast time arguing on Kakashi when she knew he was right. Time was running out for her and she didn't like the feeling of being out of options. There had to be something more she could do.

"Kakashi," Sakura asked, her glare relaxed to a half lidded stare. "If I tried to leave this home, would you stop me?"

"Probally."

"Would you be able to stop me?"

"I would try."

The wind picked up again, sending the loose strands of her hair up around her face before settling back around her shoulders and arms. "I'm running out of time. I'm leaving tomorrow morning if you want to try and stop me."

"I don't think I want to let you go to that base, but if you're really that determined, I'm a bit frightened of the alternative. I might have to let you go."

Sakura bit back a smirk as her former teacher slid his headband down over his red eye to leave only the one closed in a crinkle exposed. "I'm not leaving for the base, Kakashi. I'm heading for the remains of the Uchiha clan."

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Kisame cursed once again, throwing the gnawed clean bone back down with the rest of them before reaching for another leg of meat. The other customers in the restaurant kept their distance from from the pair and hurried to finish their meals.

"There's hardly any meat on these damn things. I'm almost tempted to kill a pig myself."

"Their meat is not so desirable. _If you want something worth eating, jump that guy in the corner there. He's got enough meat on his bones."_

Kisame frowned, chewing the half cooked meat with his mouth closed before spitting out the small joint bones that had not been picked out. "Man Zetsu, you really have a disgusting personality. I can see why no one every works with you now."

"Your opinion on my personality is noted, though unneeded. We will be departing soon enough. _And to be honest I can't stand you either, fish face_."

"Fish face, eh? Haven't heard that one in a while-maggot."

Zetsu cleared his throat, and it looked like his white side was the one that was taking over, though it was always hard to tell. His black side did that sometimes to tease the other members and freak them out. "However much I may dislike you, Kisame san, I would appreciate it if we could remain civil while on duty. That goes for you as well, I dislike arguments._ Shut up, I'll do as I damn well please, goody two shoes!_

Kisame rolled his eyes and cursed something under his breath. _"_Why did I have to come with you, anyway? There's no one there at that stump of a has-been crap house. You're the scout of the organization and we all know you travel faster when you are by yourself. I'm just slowing you down and picking out of your pocket for the meal-not that I mind that part."

Zetsu nodded, brushing out a wrinkle in his cloak. "I am only dimly aware of the situation myself. It did not seen acceptable to question leader sama on his orders, no matter how inefficient they may be._ You're both morons for not figuring it out by now. Fishface is here as muscle. _"

"Why, there's no one left at that place? Just ruins and slaughtered bodies. Whatever went kookoo in that crack joint flew the coop months ago. You saw it for yourself, there was no one when we went to scout it out, yesterday." Kisame leaned back in his seat and waved down a waiter to bring him another dish of meat legs. Zetsu became vaguely aware of where all of Kisame's earnings went. This was his eighth order already and those servings weren't cheep.

_"No wonder you're regarded as such an idiot. There were clearly signs of activity that took place after the attack_. And all those children were returned to their parents, that's true, but whoever did that is probably long gone."

"Exactly, so why the hell was I needed?" Kisame grumbled, chewing on a bone that still has scraps of meat hanging from it.

"_The risk, fat ass._ The creations in that base were going to be some of the best. There was one-a female, who was going to be acting as a replacement for Itachi san if he should die-which he did. She was most likely the reason that base is empty."

"Whoa, back up a sec, I was going to have a chick for a partner?" Zetsu nodded. "And she ran away?" Zetsu nodded again. "Damn it, I have the world's worst luck. She was probably hott, too. I hope not, or else I'll feel really bad."

_"She looked tasty."_

"Shut up," Kisame growled, throwing the bone he had been sucking on at his partner, who easily avoided it be leaning over to one side.

Zetsu coughed into his hand before straightening up. "Either way, there were signs of recant activity there and Leader sama didn't want any more information falling into the wrong hands. He also wanted us to keep an eye out for those experiments- the female especially. _He still wants her as a member, even if she doesn't like you._"

Kisame was about to reply with a second flying leg bone when his ninth plate of meat was brought out from the kitchen by a frightened waiter who fled from the vicinity as soon as the meat was delivered. "Woos. He's never going to get a girl like that."

Zetsu's darker side snickered and then laughed out loud. "_Like you can talk? The reason she ran away probably had to do with the fear of becoming partners with you and your hideous face_. Though, that is most certainly not the case, since she had no knowledge of us at the time of the attack. I doubt if she even knew you were in need of a partner."

"Are you kidding, Itachi's death is the only thing the world can talk about these days. 'The younger Uchiha brother, sole surviver of the Uchiha massacre takes his revenge. Uchiha Itachi is fallen, the man is dead!' Shit, it's so damn annoying."

"You do impressions very well, Kisame san." Kisame huffed, before digging into his leg bone. "At least the reason behind taking an extra ring has become clear to us. Leader sama was expecting us to run into her. _Shows how smart he is. She's probably three hundred miles from where we are. If I had the choice, I wouldn't be here. _Well, its well and good that you don't have the choice then, isn't it?"

"It's really creepy when you talk to yourself like that."

_"It's better than talking to a fish that has a half digested carcass jumping around in his mouth."_

"If I had a choice I wouldn't be here with you either."

"Due to the loss of five members, Akatsuki lost most of its former strength. Leader sama has enlisted the aid of Team Hawk, to complete minor goals. Technically, the members of Hawk are not full members of the Akatsuki, as they do not possess the rings worn by each of the full members. _But those kids are no better than this one. The red head is so damn annoying. It's not even fun watching her misery_."

Kisame threw down the last of his mean and chuckled, remembering the skinny red head with glasses that followed Itachi's younger brother around like a love sick puppy. No one in the organization-including team Hawk- liked the young woman, despite her unique abilities. "For once, I agree with your darker side. She's even more annoying with he Uchiha away in leaf as a spy. I'm ready to leave now, let's go."

Zetsu pulled out his walled and mumbled something to his other side before emptying it completely. Both sides gave Kisame an angry glare before following the taller male outside. "I'm compleatly broke now, thanks to you. _And I'm hungry after watching you chug down all those disgusting legs. We're jumping someone on the way back."_

Kisame simply chuckled, fingering the hilt of his beloved sword. "That sounded so wrong coming from you."

_"Shut up and get moving, you slow us down enough_."

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Sakura stopped in to a restaurant and removed her hat and cloak. The customers looked apprehensive of her at first but soon enough the males in the room warmed up to her. She draped her black cloak over her one arm and sat down at one of the smaller tables. She was quickly provided by with a waiter who was eager to take her order.

"So, where are you headed. You look like a traveler."

Sakura smiled and scrambled to make up a lie. "Amegakure, That's where I'm originally from. I'm a medic though, so I'm all over the place."

"No kidding, there was a pair in here earlier-real mean looking- that were heading there themselves. We though for sure there were missing nin, but they paid for their meals and didn't cause any trouble. Though the big guy did eat a lot."

Sakura's interest spiked a bit. "Mean looking? What did they look like?"

"The one was black and white faced, couldn't see anything more than that because he was hidden in a fly trap thingie. The other one was blue and he looked like a shark. He carried a big sword on his back and ate enough for nine men."

Sakura's eyes widened momentarily before she composed herself. "Ah, they do sound frighting. Good thing nothing bad happened. When were they here?"

The waiter blushed at her smile and stuttered a bit, tripping over his words before answering. "Two to Three hours ago."

"Well, I am glad everyone here is safe. I think I'll take a mint tea with that order."

"Yes, mamn."

Once Sakura was left alone, her smile fell and her mood turned sour. Hoshigaki Kisame was the blue one and the two colored man sounded like Zetsu. The first of the two was easy to recognize. Kisame has a distinctive shark-like appearance, complete with pale blue skin, small white eyes, gill-like facial structures, and sharp triangular teeth. Even his name, Kisame (鬼鮫), means "Demon Shark".

The other, while vauge, was undoubtly Zetsu. Not man men out there had black and white skin or their head stuck in a flytrap. Sakura closed her eyes and tried to go over what she remembered about the missing nin. Little was known about Zetsu's abilities when she was on the only technique he has been shown using is his Mayfly technique, with which he merges with the ground to instantly travel to a new location. Aside from that, he is a known cannibal. Several of her dead ANBU friends were proof enough of that.

If they were this close, did that mean they were waiting for her? Did they know she was on the move towards leaf? If they did, than it was possible she was being targeted by the Akatsuki. They would know Hitome was sick and loosing eyesight, and they would know she was willing to help. But would they know when and where she would act? She was powerful but not suicidal, Sakura didn't want to tangle with those two if she could help it.

'It won't matter. By this time tomorrow I'll be in the Uchiha compound digging up their secrets. If they run into me it'll be their grave.'

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"Oi teme, what's with you. You look distant."

Sasuke blinked and looked away from the parting clouds in the sky. "What was that?"

Naruto huffed and rubbed the back of his head. "I said you look distant. What's up with you, Sasuke?"

Sasuke blinked lazily before turning away from his blue eyed teammate and fixing his faze to the orange red sky and it's stained clouds. It was a marvelous sunset, even for Leaf. "No, it's nothing. I just have a bad feeling about tomorrow, that's all."

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Distant  
Shifty-eyed and restless  
I dream of a presence  
With essence  
And absence of doubt

Come closer  
Come and stay with me now  
Help me reconcile  
Come and stay a while

And I will find a home  
Because we love till the end  
We love till the end of the day  
Of the day

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* * *

Don't kill me! I'm too young to die!

So, Sasuke is a spy, and Kisame was plannong on making Sakura his partner....well, sort of. Pein was planning on that. There was no Mandera in this chapter, but he was...there, working behind the scenes, plotting a meeting was Sakura when she's weak and weary. *looks shocked* Did I say that? Anyway, mixing more and more plot into this and hopefully, something good will pop out inn the end.

PLEASE REVIEW!

Ja ne

-Vesper chan


	9. Ten Black Roses

Disclaimer/ I do not own Naruto, or this song

This chapter is deadicated to all those who reviewed the last chapter~ Please read, enjoy, and review.

-

**Chapter Seven**

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_Life is like a boat in a bottle  
Try to sail, you can't with no air  
Day by day it only gets harder  
Try to scream but nobody cares_

_Through the glass you see the same faces  
Hear the voices fade like a drum  
When your life's a boat in a bottle  
You're surrounded drifting alone_

_Don't leave me now  
Stay another day  
With me_

_When you're sad and no one knows it  
I'll send you black roses  
When your heart's dark and frozen  
I'll send you black roses_

_Far away we wait for each other  
I'm still on that road to nowhere  
Kiss yourself for me in the mirror  
Tie a black rose into your hair_

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_'It won't matter. By this time tomorrow I'll be in the Uchiha compound digging up their secrets. If they run into me it'll be their grave.'_

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Of all the times the Suna delegates had to come over for their internship in leaf...Gah, did someone up there really hate her this much?

Getting into the land of Fire was easy enough, but the hidden leaf village was a whole other story. If she hadn't been a resident and loyal ninja to it's ranks before all of this, she probally wouldn't have been able to sneak in the way she did. But that was one of the perks of being an ex leaf nin. She _did_ know it's secrets and all of it's weaknesses. The village had nothing to hide from her, even if it wanted to. This was one of the reasons why missing nin are hunted down with such vigor. A ruler doesn't want the cracks and seams in the defenses of her or her village to be made know to anyone, enemy or not.

Sadly for Tsunade and her village, she _was_ a missing nin and she _did_ know where the biggest cracks were.

The ruins that were the Uchiha compound were still untouched, weather out of respect for the fallen or fear of the deathly place, she knew not. No one liked going there, weather it be because it unsettled them or because they should be there in the first place. The Uchiha compound was for Uchihas, no one else. Even enemy nin tended to avoid this place, so patrols concerning this place were not tight. If you wanted to invade Leaf, this was the place to do it by.

Bending low to the ground and arching, Sakura scrawled across the floor, making sure to keep herself under the deepest and darkest shadows were she was sure she wouldn't be seen. It's not like anyone patrolled around here, but still, you can never be too careful. The house in front of her had a lard hold burnt into it's side, perfect for slithering in to.

Even after so many years the blood stands that were left over from the massacre were still there, faded, but there none the less. Maybe they were kept there to cry testimony for the ones who died with their honor at the hands of the only Uchiha who actually deserved it.

Yes, Sakura knew the secrets only they dead were allowed to share. Funny, how deal old Tsunade didn't think giving her permission to snoop out Danzo's old chambers was a big deal. That would be something the old woman would surly regret.

Safely inside the torn apart house, Sakura rose to a still crouching position, never really letting her guard down. She was maybe four or five doors down from the main house where Uchiha secrets were still kept under mild protection. If her information was correct-she crossed the floor and lifted up one of the matts-there would be a underground passage leading straight to that house's underground chamber.

finding the tunnel, she smiled to herself before slipping down, her eyes turning a brilliant shade of gold that allowed her better vision underground. No doubt there would be booby traps that were set off with light. Uchiha were required to see in the dark like this, so anyone one else who didn't have a natural ability to see in such black places, would light themselves a fire and fall prey to the trappings underneath.

The walls were cold, and the feeling of being underground sent shivers up and down her spine once more. She didn't like being underground, ever since escaping from the lab that had been one of the things she could really live without. The cave she and they kids were staying in right now had high ceilings and plenty of emergency exits. Maybe it was the raven inside of her that wanted freedom and open skies she could fly through, or maybe it was her fears that made her rush through the dark halls faster than she should have.

Coming up in the main house felt like coming up for fresh air after being underwater for so long. Her eyes spied the alter where a fake, booby-trap scroll sat and she snickered to herself. If she hadn't been a leaf nin, she probably would have fallen for that. Too bad she had to go back underground, the way she came in order to get to that room where the real scroll was being kept.

"This won't take long," she quietly told herself before plunging back into the darkness were there was barely enough room to move around in. Following the pattern memorized from long ago, it wasn't long till the steeps that seemed to go on forever stopped at a room that was what she was really interested in.

The alter wasn't lit, but the traps set against fires would go off in this room, so she brought up a light from her fingertips and lit both candles, lighting up the room in a golden hue. There was a box there with the Uchiha secrets, just waiting for her to take it. Sakura held her breath and inched her fingers under the seal, making sure to take it off in one piece, least ti tear and alert the next party down here that someone had take it's contents. It came off easily, too easily.

Sakura felt her whole body flare up in anger when she saw that the box was empty. Empty! After all this way and all this time wasted, was it all for nothing? Where was the scroll now? Had someone moved it after her 'death'? Did they know she was coming for it?

Feeling another body for the first time, Sakura spun around and fell into a defensive position, weapon in hand.

"You're sharp. I wasn't here one second before you noticed me. Not even the Hyuga could do that."

"Who are you and what do you want?"

The man, whoever it was, sighed in a childish manner. "You know, no one ever says anything else when we first meet, unless I have them tied up or something, then they yell at me to let them go or leave them alone. Just once I would like an original first greeting."

Sakura was not amused, and it showed in her tone of voice. "If you have no business with me than screw off, how about that?"

He chuckled. "That's more like it. I'm glad we were able to meet, finally my dear Sakura."

She tensed, eyes widening as she tried to make out his shadowed form. "You know my name and yet I don't have a clue as to who I'm insulting. Don't you think that's a little bit unfair?"

"Only if you call me with a _kun_, Sakura _chan_."

He must be really powerful to be talking so lightly to her. He almost seemed playful, and Sakura would have left it at that, had she not noticed the years of power and experience underlining his voice. She shouldn't take this guy lightly. "Alright then, mystery kun. Will you tell me your name now?"

He laughed, loudly. His voice echoed off the walls for a moment Sakura though she was going to be given away and captured by whoever had been alerted. But that wasn't the case, seeing as how he moved closer to the candles to let their light fall on everything under his chin. She couldn't make out his face, but she could see he had long black hair that was wildly tossed about his shoulders and down his back. Black...it wasn't a rare color, but the first hting that sprang to her mind was _Uchiha_.

"Well, won't you tell me, so that I don't have to keep calling out to you blindly?" she asked once more.

His laughter subsided into silence, though she could still faintly make out some chuckles coming from his shadowed lips. "You may call me Madara, darling. Uchiha Madara _kun_."

"Uchiha?" she gasped, shocked that her gut had been right about this man. Could it be possible that this guy was not only an Uchiha, but the once believed Madara?

"Aw, you didn't say it right. Didn't I ask for a kun?"

Sakura took a half steep back, knowing fully well that she wouldn't be able to beat this guy, no matter what she tried. Madara was a legend among legends, she didn't stand a hope of a chance if she tried ducking it out with this guy. Best just to play along and pray he lets her live. "Fine then, Madara _kun_. What do you want with me?"

She could _swear_ she _heard_ him smirk. "For now, I just wanted to see you, but hearing you call my name makes me want to meet you again sometime soon. I'm so glad I decided to do things this way, since it's you who ended up cursed with forever and death. It makes the days ahead seem a bit brighter."

Before Sakura could reply, something was thrown at her and she caught it on reflex. The Uchiha fan stood out against it's side, making her eyes widen once again that evening. It was the scroll she had come for! "What's this for?"

"Didn't you want it? I have no use for it having already known all there is to know about these eyes of mine. You'll find the cure to those little orbs of hers in there, I'm sure."

"You're just giving this to me, without asking for anything in return?"

"I didn't say that."

She shifted positions slightly, ready for an assault. "And what would that be?"

Another scroll was tossed in her direction and she caught it with the same hand, holding both scrolls between her fingers. The second thrown scroll looked old, but not rare. it reminded her of the fairytale stories that she used to collect as a child. It was small too, probably not a lot in it. "What's with this?"

"It's just something I want you to read when you have the time. You'll understand more about yourself this way."

Before she could ask anything more, something blew across the back of her neck, pausing at the shell of her ears to whisper a brief message, before the presence known as Madara Uchiha was no more. Sakura was alone, two scrolls in her possession, deep in enemy territory.

No time for wasting, she pocketed both desired objects and blew out the candles, turning towards the doorway that would lead her out of this accursed place. During her journey upward, she couldn't help but remember his whispered words, shivering every time they repeated themselves in her mind.

_'Don't worry, my dear. We'll see each other again real soon. I'll be waiting in Amegakure if you get _lonely_.'_

"_Lonely_? Chee, not if I can help it," she hissed before zipping out of the Uchiha district and away from Leaf.

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"Tell me once more, why we stopped freaking halfway and turned east?" Kisame grumbled, not happy at all with the way things were going for him and his unlikely partner.

"You were already informed once, Kisame san. _Are you really that stupid to have me repeat it so many times?_"

"All you told me was, Leader sama ordered it. Like that explains anything."

"We don't need to know, _only obey_."

Kisame made a face behind Zetsu's back while mimicking his partner in a childish manner. "What a load of bull. That's easy enough for you to say, since you already know why we are here. I'm the only one left in the dark. I work better when I know what I'm suppose to be doing."

Zetsu looked like he was arguing with himself, whispering messages back and forth under his breath, while completely ignoring Kisame. The dark side-the one who wanted to spill the beans and get him to shut up- seemed to have won, since Zetsu stopped walking and turned towards Kisame.

"We are here to intercept a person of vale that Madara sama has his eye on. _It's better if you known since we can't have you chopping off her legs or anything like that, yt."ou dumb ass. Of course you'd be stupid enough to do something like that_."

"Eh! What do you mean by _her_? Is it a chick?"

"Great going. _Shut up_!"

"Holy shit, it is! I bet it's that same chick you wanted me to be partnered up with. We're really going to try and capture her?" Both sides of Zetsu seemed to groan and turn away, even though Kisame kept going on and on about the same thing.

"I told you it would be unwise to choose to fill him in. _I thought it would shut him up!_ Well as you can see, that was not the case. If it did anything, he is now louder and more annoying than before. _Not my problem."_

"Oi, you listening to be, plant head."

_"Of course not."_

"I want answers! You can't open a can of worms like that and expect me to be content or quiet. There's stuff I need to know."

Zetsu stopped suddenly, his body going rigid. Kisame reached out to pat him on the shoulder but the green haired man had already begun to melt into the ground. Kisame would have though this was the missing nin's way of avoiding an argument, had he not known that this was how Zetsu looked and acted when his 'stalker' side kicked in. Whatever they were tracking or waiting for was close by and he was getting ready.

"There," the whole earth seemed to say, and Kisame saw the dark black blur heading their way at speeds impressive to even him. Even though she was that fast, he could still see the ANBU mask and hood that covered her face and his her hair. It looks like she didn't want anyone seeing her and/or recognizing her.

Samehada tingled under the blue man's fingertips as he pulled it from his back and swung it once. He knew he should probably try and be quiet, but that was just not his style. Recording the battle would be left up to Zetsu. He got the fun part.

He stuck his sword deep into the ground and began to fly through his hands seals. "Water Release: Exploding Water Colliding Wave," he shouted.

The masked ninja was taken by surprise and sent back, hit face on by the giant wave that seemed to suck up everything, creating a lake's worth of water to give him the field advantage, and to use for attacks. She cursed, throwing out a chain that stuck to one of the largest trees. With that she was able to swing out of the still swirling waves and throw her self high into the air where she could assault her opponent with a rain of finely sharpened ninja weapons.

"Fun," Kisame drawled, pulling out his sword to cover himself with. Nothing got by him. "That all you have girlie?"

He didn't get an answer sine the explosive tags at his feet chose that moment to go off.

"Did I get him?" she asked to herself in a low whisper, readying a kuni just in case.

"Sorry, not even close!" he cried, coming out of the water behind her, sword swinging. She was fast, and that was the only reason she was able to get away with just a bit of her chakra sucked away. Any other person would have lost a leg...or two. Kisame paused, holding up his shredding weapon and frowned. "Hmm, that's strange. I've eaten this chakra before. Have we ever met before this, girlie?"

"Maybe, I think I would have remembered someone as oddly colored as you, though," she hissed, jumping back another three yards to give her enough room to evade once again.

That did him in. Chick or not, he really couldn't stand it when people talked about his skin color in such a manner. Shadows stretched over his face to hide his eyes as he straightened up, sword in hand. "Oddly colored...? Die you freaking bitch!"

The attacks came hard and fast, and there were most than often three at once, thanks to his water clones. She tried to evade and substitute out of her spots, but soon he overtook her, and drained her of almost all she had. The mask went flying only to crash against a nearby tree and split in two before sliding down into the water.

"Ughh," she cried, feeling like crap, having so much of her blood now leaking into the miniature stream that came up to her neck. If she hadn't fallen against a tree like this, would she have drowned? There were shadows crawling over her sight and she felt her body going numb. The water seemed to be sucking up her blood like a thirsty child.

"Oi oi, I think I know you! You were with the green freak guy that didn't know how to shut up? Are you the one we are after?" Kisame asked, suddenly falling back into his earlier personality. It was like he was never a raging beast to begin with.

"Kisame." The blue sinned man turned around to see Zetsu melt out of the tree. "This ones name is Tenten, and she is not the one we are after. It seems we miscalculated. _Way to go fat ass._"

"Then..." Kisame looked down at the bleeding girl and then back up at his partner. "Then what? Where is she, anyway?"

"_The sneaky bitch knew we were waiting for her and haulted till this chick came up. _She must have slipped past while you were fighting. Did you notice anything off."

"I though that was your job."

"_Shit_."

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"I should be too far ahead for them to track me now. Kisame can't hide his presence to kill himself, there's too much chakra in that guy."

Crammed into the back of a woman's ox pulled cart, Sakura pulled out her scrolls, making sure they were both safe before she opened the second one Madara had given her. Earlier she had checked for any tracking signatures or possible traps that could have been hidden in it's layers, but found none.

Her eyes widened considerably at what she saw.

**_Yura no Nori_**

Project Karasu details...

Izanagi, god of creation lamented the death of his wife Izanami, goddess of creation, and undertook a journey to Yomi, the shadowy land of the dead in order to see her. Quickly, he searched for Izanami and found her. At first, he could not see her at all for the shadows hid her appearance well. Nevertheless, he asked her to return with him. Bitter, Izanami spat out at him, informing Izanagi that he was too late. She had already eaten the food of the underworld and was now one with the land of the dead. She could no longer return to the living.

Izanagi was shocked but refused to give in to her wishes of being left to the dark embrace of Yomi. While Izanami was sleeping, he took the comb that bound his long hair and set it alight as a torch. Under the sudden burst of light, he saw the horrid form of the once beautiful and graceful Izanami. She was now a rotting form of flesh with maggots and foul creatures running over her ravaged body.

Crying out loud, Izanagi could no longer control his fear and started to run, intending to return to the living and abandon his death-ridden wife. Izanami woke up shrieking and indignant and chased after him. Wild _shikome, dead and foul women_ also hunted for the frightened Izanagi, instructed by Izanami to bring him back.

Izanagi burst out of the entrance and quickly pushed a boulder in the mouth of the _Yomotsuhirasaka,_ the cavern that was the entrance of Yomi. Izanami screamed from behind this impenetrable barricade and told Izanagi that if he left her she would destroy 1,000 residents of the living every day. He furiously replied he would give life to 1,500. As so the parted, life and death, killing and birthing.

This served for inspiration behind the 48 years of research on resurrection properties. By embodieing the goddess of death's powers within the Karasu, we were able to develop a weapon that could resurrect and damned on demand and control them to her will. The subject would have to be female, to synch with the role of goddess of death it seems. After three failed attempts on males, this became obvious.

The only drawback to this weapon was that it can only be used by one person and that person must possess perfect chakra control at all times. The number of humans in the ninja world who can do this is less then five, and there are only two known females who can do so. Tsunade, the hokage of Leaf, and her apprentice Haruno Sakura. Tsunade is too old for such a procedure, so the only choice left for this operation is Haruno-a vassal willingly given up in exchange for-

And that was all there was. The rest was faded and light, making it unable to be read.

"Damn, what does this all mean?"

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_Don't lose your faith  
Share another night  
With me_

_When you're sad and no one knows it  
I'll send you black roses  
When your heart's dark and frozen  
I'll send you black roses_

_Ten black roses  
Ten black roses_

_Life is like a boat in a bottle  
Try to sail, you can't with no air  
Day by day it only gets harder  
Try to scream but nobody cares_

_When you're sad and no one knows it  
I'll send you black roses  
When your heart's dark and frozen  
I'll send you black roses_

_Ten black roses  
Ten black roses_

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Don't kill me! I'm too young to die!

In the last chapter we learned that Sasuke is a spy, and Kisame was plannong on making Sakura his partner. In this chapter we learned that...well, it was implied that Madara had bigger plans for Sakura and that he might just have an intrust in her beyond her abilities. That, and Sakura is a sneaky bitch, as Zetsu likes to call her.

**_PLEASE REVIEW!!_**

-Vesper chan


	10. Hotblack

Disclaimer/ I do not own Naruto, or this song Hotblack by Oceanship. One of the coolest bands in the history of Canada. Go check them out cause this song is hot.

This chapter is deadicated to all those who reviewed the last chapter~ Please read, enjoy, and review.

**Chapter Nine**

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Took a big trip  
With your old band  
To your homeland  
For the wrong man

Making big plans  
For your own sake  
Hope they don't bend  
Hope they don't break

Took a tip from a rodeo show  
Get a grip or you're gonna get thrown  
Take your aim when you take a shot  
For the man under you will take everything you got

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Exhaustion caught up with her, dragging her body down like a lead weight into the easy chair next to the bookcase. She sighed heavily and let her eyes close, expecting sleep to be right there, waiting for her eagerly.

"You were amazing," Kakashi commented lightly, leaning against the wall with his stupid book in hand.

"I'm sleepy," she groaned.

"Talking to sleepy people is fun. It never fails to amuse me what can come out of their mouths when they are only partly aware of their surroundings."

"Leave me alone, surgery is a bugger and I want to be done for the day," Sakura whined, rolling over a bit to bunch up into a ball on the chair. Her back shook a bit with shivers since her white long sleeve was so thin but she didn't bother to get up and find something else that could warm her. Her knees were pulled up high and her face was deeply buried between them, blocking all else out of sight.

Kakashi didn't say anything more for a while, but when he did he spoke in a tone much softer and less teasing, letting Sakura know that he was serious about what he was saying. "That little girl is going to sleep well for the first time in a long time because of you and I'm not talking about only the surgery."

Sakura shifted a bit in her seat but didn't hurry to reply. After coming back from the raid with the forbidden scroll in hand she had wasted little to no time studying it and preparing for the actual surgery. Kakashi had of course asked for details as to why she was late coming back, but everytime he came to her she would brush it off, push it to the side, or give him a thin, basic story that would hold him over for only a little longer. She hadn't told him about Madara or Kisame. He worried too much as it was, she didn't want to see Kakashi freak out any more than he already had.

Silence stretched and then Sakura surprised the both of them with a question. "How is she doing?"

"Hitomi is sleeping sound last I checked. The others are taking care of her well enough now that there is nothing serious wrong with her anymore."

"Aside from the fact that there are probably people out there who want to kill her and steal her eyes?"

"I'm sure there are plenty more people who would like to kill you, regardless of how beautifle your eyes are."

Sakura seemed to hum a low, long chuckle at his seemingly ridicules statement. "Which ones?" _Her eyes darted back and forth going into REM as the color of the iris started to change. Her hand clenched within the clasps as they too underwent an unseen change._

"All four of them?"

"Stupid..."

Sakura pulled the pillow that was behind her back out and tossed it at where she thought Kakashi was, missing him by a hair. He laughed in return and watched from a safe distance, his book limp and floppy in his hand.

Seeing Sakura quiet down he pocketed the novel and picked up the pillow. He tried putting it back behind Sakura, but upon touching her shoulder he realized that the young woman was actually asleep. He dropped the pillow at his side and instead slipped his arms under Sakura's body, lifting her into a bridal carry. Her bones were sharp against her skin and he silently marveled at the new weight. She ate enough to satisfy a woman her age but her metabolism was too fast to keep anything on her bones for very long. That's how many ninja were.

Carrying her out of the room, Kakashi shifted her in his arms so that her face rolled into his neck. She breathed little breaths like a bird against his neck, fanning it with warmth. Beneath his mask he couldn't help but smile at the comfortable feeling. He loved it.

He stopped outside his room and kicked the door open with the toe of his shoe, not minding that it creaked a bit. There was already a light on by the bed to see by as he set Sakura down on his mattress with the sheets pulled back. She sighed at the detachment and balled up like a cold child so he tucked her in as best he could before going for a few more blankets that were sure to keep her warm.

Bringing those blankets over he wrapped her up and tucked her in so that she was surrounded by an inescapable heat. Looking down at her it made his heart flutter. She was so cute with only the top half of her face sticking out of the mess of blankets with her nose and cheeks red from what might turn out to be a half hour fever brought on by chakra overuse. She was adorable in his eyes.

Leaning down he brushed aside a stray hair and rested his knuckles against her cheek. "You know something? Sometimes when I'm with you I'm convinced living a little longer in this world wouldn't be such a bad thing."

He bent down and kissed her forehead before climbing in next to her, recognizing that, yes, in the morning he might get pummeled for this stunt, but it was probably worth it. Sakura yawned in her sleep and buried deeper into her blankets like a little pink haired mouse and Kakashi laughed.

"Yeah, definitely worth it."

"Mmm, I couldn't agree more."

Kakashi startled, jumping up into a crouch position with a kuni out, poised and ready. In front of him the bedroom door creaked a bit, swinging back further against the wall as if it had just been pushed open, but there was no one there and Kakashi remembered leaving it ajar. Before he had time enough to look around the voice spoke again, this time closer.

"I can't think of a single worthy sole who wouldn't give up everything for such a precious bird."

Kakashi whirled and there, crouched over Sakura with his face so closer to her own, hunched the form of their intruder. Red eyes swiveled up meet Kakashi's only exposed orb just in time to catch the air cutting hiss of his Kuni.

"Get away from her," Kakashi snarled, lunging so he stood crouched over Sakura's body, one foot on either side of her. Somehow he had managed to whip his eye-cover off and activate his own sharingan.

The intruder stood just out of arm's reach, body drawn up to full height. Kakashi could see that this man had an impressive build and was obviously a very skilled shinobi. How he had managed to enter without giving himself away was amazing as well as frightening. The tall man wore odd clothing of ages past, a flapping robe and military issued leggings that left most of his chest exposed caught Kakashi's attention. This man didn't have any visible scars nor did he carry any weapons.

"How rude of you, to attack like a rabid dog in heat when the master has come back for his prize," the man sighed almost teasingly with a devil may care look to his eyes.

"Who the hell are you and what do you want with Sakura?"

"Feisty little puppy..."

"Answer the damn questions before I kill you."

The male huffed and shook his head to let a few stands of black fall away from his face. "I'm here to check in on her of course. She hasn't come to visit me and I'm terribly lonely all by myself. I though something might be keeping her."

Kakashi flinched a bit at the though of this man taking away his Sakura but kept his cool. "You still haven't told me who you are."

"I though you would have recognized me with my hair all grown out once more. You're one of the older students of the Leaf are you not?"

"Your. Name." The comas in his eyes began to spin with anger.

The man held Kakashi's stare unblinking, his own ruby orbs almost a perfect mirror of the man in front of him. He seemed to be debating whether or not it was worth the trouble to waste his breath on something so trivial. The power distance was all the more apparent but Kakashi still held the man's gaze. He had something to protect and he would die before it was taken from him again. Something sparked a smile in the dark haired male and he chuckled.

"Very well. You've entertained me enough to merit that. I'll leave you with a name so that you may inform my little bird who it was that requests her presence in _A_megakure. She should know where to find me once you tell her Madara Uchiha was here."

"What-"

The breath was gone from Kakashi's lungs as an iron fist buried its self into his chest, sending him backwards off the bed. He landed and flipped just time to swipe at his attacker but was off my only a hair. Madara took the shot and grabbed Kakashi by his neck. Kakashi kicked and landed a good one, but it wasn't enough since his eyes met Madara's in the split second after. Seeing the endless back orbs with only small dots of red paralyzed. Kakashi had never seen a sharingan like that nor felt its effects.

"Bastard," he whispered, feeling his voicebox tighten till he could no longer speak.

"Maybe so, but that is beside the point, Hatake. The point here is you. I'd like to consider myself a fair man but the relationship you've taken towards my little bird is all but absurd. I find it quite displeasing and would appreciate if you would stop yourself and save yourself some heartache. I'm not in the habit of letting what is mine be snatched away right under my nose."

To this point Madara's tone had been light and somewhat airy, but all of a sudden it turned sharp and cruel. "I've given you your health and sanity and I can take it away any time I chose to. Keep the fuck away from what's mine."

And with that Madara slammed the younger male deep into the ground, sending Kakashi's mind to a scattering of different places while he fought to stay awake. He was still paralyzed but his distorted vision was coming back to him in bits and pieces. Madara's sandals stopped in front of his face and kicked his nose.

"My bird will be rested enough to come after me in a week's time, so by then I expect her to come to me. I'll have the Hokage there as well in case she wants her revenge but I know that's not motivation enough so I will be taking one of the little ones with me. I guarantee their safety for seven days. After that..."

The edges began to darken and kakashi felt himself slipping away.

"Seven days Hatake."

He heard laughter.

Then the world went black.

When he woken he was in a white bed surrounded by noise. Something rested atop his face and when he reached up he noticed that his mask was no longer in place. He tried to sit up but felt her hands on his chest pushing him back into the sheets.

"Sakrua?" he called out, still too dizzy to see properly.

"I'm here, don't worry. You've been out for quite a while."

"Mmm, have I now?" he tried to joke.

Sakura's face came into his line of vision and he smiled wider, unable to help himself. She probably gave him morphine since he was feeling boneless and light like a giddy school girl with her first crush. Although...she had that sort of effect on him most of the time so it was unfair to blame it on a drug.

"You mind telling me what happened? I woke up this morning and found you bleeding on the floor with a crater half the size of your torso! And by the way, that's the only reason you are still alive. You think I wouldn't notice when I woke up in your bed? I'd hang you up if you weren't already dying."

"It's not that bad is it?" he asked, tone still light.

Sakura stopped what she was doing and stared him in the face, expression leaving no room for joking. Hatake I can't find Ryuu kun and none of the other kids have seen him. It's strange that he would be missing and yet I find you obviously bested from a fight."

"Ryuu huh, the silver haired midget?"

"Kakashi..."

"Probably just wanted some air or something. That brat was annoying anyway." The older male smiled and shrugged, looking away.

Sakura leaned back, pulling the cloth off his forehead with slow cautious movements. The next thing Kakashi knew Sakura was above him with her hand wrapped around his mouth, eyes leveled with his own. She was past the point of joking and teasing. She wanted the truth and she wouldn't put up with anything less. "Tell me now, what the hell happened to you, now."

He sighed and deflated a bit under her. "It's nothing to concern you. I'll get him back myself and fix this all on my own. Just wait here. You're still weak from the operation aren't you."

"Does that mean you're not going to tell me anything?"

"I'll deal with it, so let me sleep."

Sakura released Kakashi and sat back, slouching a bit. Yet, she looked no less determined. "Do you want to know what happened to me on my trip? I couldn't get the scroll on my own but there was someone there to help me in the compound. Madara Uchiha was actually the one who got it for me. I didn't actually believe he would leave me alone so easily."

"You're a hard person to leave alone."

"I know where he's waiting so I plan on leaving with or without your help as soon as I am well."

He tried to sit up once more but Sakura pushed him back into the sheets none too lightly. "It's obvious whatever it is he has for you is a trap and yet you're still going to go?"

"Did you not hear me when I told you Ryuu kun was missing."

"...Still."

Sakura stood and retreated to the other side of the room and stopped at the door. Looking back she tried to smile but it only came out as a pathetic grimace. "Try to get some rest while you can. I'm going to get something to eat with the other kids. I promise not to do anything without you."

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Tsunade adjusted her robes while seated, increasingly uncomfortable with her seating arrangements. The longer she sat the longer she wanted to fidget and get up and move. On either side of her stood masked ANBU guards who appeared as calm and serene as possible, though she knew they had to be experiencing some level of discomfort. They were, after all, in one of the most violent and mysterious countries in the ninja world with little to no explanation as to why they needed to be in such a place.

Tsunade looked up upon hearing the sound of a door creaking open. She caught sight of the swirling black cloak dotted with red clouds and couldn't help but scowl a little. It always made her feel a bit disgusted to be in the same room as anyone from the organization.

"Thank you for your patience, esteemed princess," a new voice called as the figure entered the room.

"Pein," Tsunade grumbled, unhappy with the sight before her. He should have been dead and to the rest of her village that's what he was. Little did they know he was newly resurrected by the power of Kabuto who was allied with the world's strongest Uchiha.

"My master will be with you shortly. He asked me to entertain you in the meantime."

"How long is a little while?" she asked.

"A few days at the most, princess."

"You might have forgotten this, but I do have a village to run and it's not the easiest thing to do via carrier birds. I was told this was important so I rushed over here only to be told I will have to wait not only hours but days? What kind of bull is this?"

"You are free to leave whenever you wish to, however, you should know there will be consequences."

"Hokage sama?" one of the masked men asked her.

The old blond woman grimaced but fell back into her seat, deflating in defeat. She knew she had her hands tied tight behind the devil's back with this person. Madara had information that could kill her politically in an instance. Not only on Sakura, but others like Kakashi, Yamato and Sai. The last two being her most recent exchanges. Perfect ones too, no one missed them. One day they were there and the next the next they were gone, spirited away to a far and distant country where similar fates awaited them.

"We will remain here till we have what is needed. Tell you master this, Pein."

"Of course, princess. May I show you and your guards to your rooms?"

"Yes you may. Come along you two."

The Two ANBU nodded and followed, Sasuke on her right and a younger ninja named Jin on her left. Only one of them was smiling behind his mask and only one of them was really a double agent with allegiances owed to the organization she hated so much.

From a higher room Madara watched the exchange between the blond and Pein with mild interest. He didn't really enjoy having that woman in his home but it was all for his precious bird. He knew she would want to have a swipe at the overflowing fat that had betrayed her. Her anger was a living presence in her and he loved it. He wanted to see it released and manifest in that precious body of hers before his own eyes.

He played with a stay black feather that was ruffled and dirty from the ground and elements. Still, he held it tenderly between his fingers, playing with it every so often before bringing it up to his widened, ruby red eyes. He grinned wide at the sight.

"Not much longer now, my love, my bird. I can hardly wait."

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Take the pills that they give you mornings  
Spit them out when they aren't looking  
Keep a smile but you burn it hot  
It's a mad, mad, world

Take the pills that they give you mornings  
Spit them out when they aren't looking  
Fix a smile but you burn it hot  
It's a mad, mad, world!

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**AN**:/Happy Halloween my peeps! I hope you are all enjoying yourself and having fun reading and studying and taking tests from school. Yeah, me neither.

Okay, this chapter only exists because of The Patchwork Cat who bugged me and bugged me and annoyed me until I got off my rear and did something about this. She is amazing and deserves credit for motivating me to actually do something for you guys.

I hope I made this chapter worth your time with Kakashi and Madara moments now. Yeah, when I first started this I did not have Madara in mind for being a love rival but that's how it turned out and I think I like it. What about you guys? Do you like Madara playing a larger role and being interested in Sakura? What about Kakashi? Sasuke even? And then there is Pein who might run into her when she storms the castle to save her little boy. **PLEASE REVIEW** and tell me what you think.


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